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AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 
SAMUEL GOMPERS 



AMERICAN LABOR 
AND THE WAR 



BY 

SAMUEL GOMPERS 

President of the American Federation of Labor 




NEW siSJr YORK 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



#**" 



Copyright, 1919, 
By Georges H. Doran Company 



Printed in the United States of America 



>199 



©CI. A. '5124 5 



FOREWORD 

It will remain for history to furnish an adequate 
evaluation of the services' rendered to the cause of 
world democracy by Samuel Gompers during the great 
war. But we need not await history's verdict to know 
that this service has been of the most vital impor- 
tance. The profound impress Samuel Gompers has 
made upon the current of world affairs during the 
most crucial period in modern history is apparent to 
all who are informed even in a casual way about day- 
to-day events. 

The labors of Mr. Gompers have been prodigious. 
In normal times his task was difficult enough. But 
when the United States entered the war his work was 
at once doubled and trebled and quadrupled. To his 
duties as president of the American Federation of 
Labor were added a multitude of duties in connec- 
tion with war work — the great war work of the Fed- 
eration itself, the post of chairman of the Committee 
on Labor, Advisory Commission of the Council of 
National Defense, president of the American Alliance 
for Labor and Democracy, and membership on com- 
mittees almost without end. 

No man in America has more literally poured 
out the vital reserve of his spirit and physique 
than the leader of America's working men and 
women. His feeling toward the war is perhaps best 

[v] 



9 3 






FOREWORD 

expressed in one of his own sentences: "This is no 
longer a war; it is a crusade for human Freedom!" 
In that spirit of devoted abandon, he has driven on 
with his work in a manner that has amazed those clos- 
est to him — a silent drama of human effort and en- 
durance. 

Thus burdened with work — work which he loved 
because it was work for the common cause of human- 
ity — he was of necessity also the voice of the cause 
for which he worked. America has known no firmer 
voice in the trying months that have passed. It has 
been a voice for democracy, a voice for freedom, and 
a voice stern and harsh in combating those insidious 
forces of pacifism and pro-Germanism that cropped 
up here and there in our midst as we struggled against 
the common enemy. 

There are collected in this volume the principal ad- 
dresses delivered by Mr. Gompers during the period 
of the great war, including the address delivered in 
the Chicago Auditorium before a magnificent audi- 
ence representative of the whole nation upon his re- 
turn from his remarkably successful tour of the Al- 
lied nations as chairman of an American Federation 
of Labor mission. 

President Gompers is an extemporaneous speaker. 
He goes before his audiences with a message and he 
pours this message out in response to the inspiration 
of his audience. It is likely that this habit of speak- 
ing what comes to his mind on the platform, more than 
anything else, gives to his utterances that striking 
character that has made him a figure listened to with 
deepest attention wherever he appears in public. 

[vij 



FOREWORD 

There is no man in America possessed of firmer con- 
viction, and this deep conviction, molded into speech 
as he proceeds with his talk, makes these utterances 
the true reflection of the innermost thought. 

It would not be possible to include between the 
covers of any one or two volumes all of the speeches 
and addresses and papers produced during the war 
by Mr. Gompers. They would fill a shelf — and yet 
he has spoken only when the occasion demanded; he 
has not had time to speak without necessity. But 
here are gathered those utterances that best show his 
trend of thought during the war. They have been 
compiled for this volume by his assistants, who pre- 
fer to remain anonymous, since they were merely the 
assemblers of the sheaves. 

It has been thought wise to include in this volume 
a sufficient number of official American Federation of 
Labor documents to give the reader a complete story 
of the American labor position during the war. To 
that end, the pronouncements of the American Fed- 
eration of Labor conventions, held during the great 
war, have been included as an appendix. 



[vii] 



CONTENTS 

PART ONE: LABOR AND THE WAR 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Foreword . v 

I Labor and the War 13 

II Democracy Without Militarism ... 39 

III National Self-Defense 50 

IV Labor and the League of Nations . . 69 
V A Pledge of Service 83 

VI Labor and National Unity .... 86 
VII America's Fight for the Preservation 

of Democracy 104 

VIII Victory Demands Unity 119 

IX Workingmen's Compensation for Fight- 
ers 128 

X A Crusade for Freedom 134 

XI In Canada for Victory 141 

XII Always the Fight for Freedom . . . 159 

XIII America Is an Ideal 175 

XIV Labor's Function in War Time . . . 185 
XV Canada and the War 197 

XVI The Double Duty of Americans . . 206 

XVII No Peace by Negotiation 211 

XVIII Freedom Is Not a Gift 218 

XIX Labor and the Allied Cause .... 223 

XX Militarism Must Be Destroyed . . . 227 

XXI War Against War 237 

XXII Last Man and Last Dollar for Freedom 247 

XXIII No Time for Traitors 253 

XXIV The Nation's Tribute to Gompers . . 265 

[ix] 



CONTENTS 

PART TWO: LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Foreword 287 

American Labor's Position in Peace or in 

War . 289 

I Philadelphia Convention — 1914 .... 296 

International War and Peace 

Report of Committee on International Rela- 
tions 
II San Francisco Convention — 1915 .... 302 

International Peace and War 

Report of Committee on International Rela- 
tions 

III Baltimore Convention — 1916 315 

International Labor Relations 

Supplemental Report of Executive Council — 

Report of Committee on International Rela- 
tions 

Supplemental Report of Committee on Inter- 
national Relations 

IV Buffalo Convention — 1917 330 

International Labor Relations 
Peace Terms 
Labor and the War 
Report of the Committee on International 

Relations 
Report of Committee on Resolutions — "Labor 

and the War " (Resolution 150 by Perkins) 

V St. Paul Convention — 1918 360 

International Labor Relations 

Peace Terms 

Report of Committee on International Rela- 
tions 

Proposals of the American Federation of Labor 
Delegates to the Inter-Allied Labor Con- 
ference in London, September 20, 1918 



M 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 



AMERICAN LABOR AND 
THE WAR 



Twentieth Century nations must adopt as a principle 
of government that peace is a basis of all civilization. Peace 
is not a by-product of other conditions, but it is a condition 
that can be secured by agents and institutions designed to 
maintain it. Peace is the fundamental necessity for all 
government and progress — industrial, intellectual, social and 
humanitarian. Without peace all these are as nothing. One 
of the main purposes of governments, then, must be the 
maintenance of international peace. 

The workers of America have learned that unfreedom 
existing in any place under our government undermines 
and endangers the liberty of all. They have learned further 
that wherever oppression and unfreedom exist in the world, 
they threaten the freedom, the welfare and the peace of 
all other lands. 

Labor Day at Plattsburg, N. Y., September yt}i, 1914. 



LABOR AND THE WAR 

/ T*HIS gathering is a part of a plan for the inter- 
■*■ national celebration in various appropriate ways 
of the one hundred years of peace that have existed 
between the United States and Great Britain. Platts- 
burg was the battleground of one of the last decisive 
contests of the war we fought with England one 
hundred years ago, our second war for independence. 
By that war we established the dignity and the au- 

[13] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

thority of our government in its contention for the 
rights of neutral nations. 

The spirit of the revolution that had torn the very 
roots of feudalism loose from the soil of France, that 
had fired men's minds with big ideas and ideals — that 
spirit was of the immortal and could not die. Wher- 
ever the tricolor of the French republic was carried 
by its armies, there was carried the spirit of the revolu- 
tion, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity." Though modi- 
fied and perverted by minds of those that could not 
understand its fullness and bigness because they had 
been born, educated, and had lived all their days under 
the influence of autocractic institutions, yet the virtue 
of hope was eternal in the watchward. 

When the great war lord who had defended the 
French republic against the interference of the sur- 
rounding monarchs converted that republic into an 
empire and sought to extend its boundaries over half 
of Europe, the immortal spirit of liberty that inspired 
the revolution of 1789 was the spirit that actuated the 
tremendous resistance to the domination of Napoleon. 

Europe was at war against the greatest war lord the 
world had ever known. Big issues had nerved the 
peoples of Europe to desperate undertakings. The 
principle of nationalism was on the balances. The 
United States was caught in the grip of a contest that 
was characterized by tremendous intensity of feeling 
and scope of purpose. Our seamen were impressed, 
our boats captured, our commerce despoiled. Though 
but a stripling of a nation we resented the insults and 
established our dignity and authority as a nation. 

We meet here to-day in commemoration of one of 
[14] 



LABOR AND THE WAR 

the last battles of the war — a battle in which untrained 
American soldiers drove veterans from behind their 
breastworks. While we glory in the victory of our 
country, yet we glory more in the years of peace and 
friendly relations which that battle helped to make pos- 
sible — we glory in the victories which the years of 
peace have brought us, in the ties of mutual welfare 
and co-operation and friendship that have bound our 
countries together. 

It is peculiarly appropriate that Labor Day, the great 
national holiday of the masses of the people of 
America, should be in the week given to this celebra- 
tion. This was an additional reason for pleasure and 
gratification in accepting an invitation to participate 
in this celebration as one of those to voice the national 
feeling at the close of this epoch devoted to the pur- 
suits of peace, industry, commerce, humanitarian and 
social progress. 

Labor Day is vitally associated with the interests 
of peace and the affairs of work and the common life. 
Labor Day is dedicated to the labor movement — the 
movement that was born of men's misery and neces- 
sity; it has been nurtured by their hopes and ideals; 
it has lifted from their backs weary burdens, thus en- 
abling them to stand erect to look upward and on- 
they have given it significance and value. Regular and 
ward. The day belongs to the workers of America — 
fitting observances of it are necessary to keep fresh 
and vigorous the spiritual meanings of the day that 
give purpose and direction to the labor movement. 
The nature of the labor movement has made it a 
powerful influence in these hundred years of peace. 

[15] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

Its existence and operation are dependent upon the 
maintenance of peace. It demands the establishment 
of justice and insists upon greater recognition of hu- 
man rights. It seeks better understanding between all 
those engaged in industry — a necessary and a potential 
condition for peace. 

By some strange chance of fortune, when the time 
for this celebration was near, when men's thoughts 
were of peace and the ways of peace, the countries 
of the western civilization are suddenly plunged into 
a titanic struggle, a stupendous death grapple for ex- 
istence with weapons so deadly that human lives are 
being spent with mad extravagance. Civilization had 
been pressing home the sacredness of human life upon 
the consciences of men. Knowledge had concerned it- 
self with the problems of life that men might know 
themselves and the world in which they live in order 
to gain better mastery over the elements and condi- 
tions. Science had sought to wrest from nature un- 
derstanding of life that, men might have life more 
abundantly. It had studied the nature and causes of 
disease in order to conserve and safeguard human life. 
Trained minds were delving deep into the secrets of 
physical forces to bring them under the control of the 
will of mankind. They harnessed the waters and the 
winds to the wheels of civilization. Minds rich in 
culture and love of humanity were studying the ills 
of society that every child might have the right to be 
well-born, to develop its full physical stature, and to 
cultivate its mental and moral possibilities. In all 
things the purpose of civilization has been to glorify 
and enrich the lives of the people — all of the people. 

[16] 



LABOR AND THE WAR' 

There were minds that were just upon the verge of 
giving the world the rich harvest of years of thought 
and study. There were hearts disciplined by life and 
understanding that were ready to interpret the beauty 
and the truth of life in the world's poetry. There 
were souls that were ready to voice the heart of things 
in music. There were ringers whose skill could in- 
terpret life on immortal canvases. There were the 
yeomanry in the fields, the factories, and the work- 
shops giving all that was of value in muscle and in mind 
to the production of things necessary for the main- 
tenance of life and civilization. These — all these — 
are sacrificed to the service of the war lords. In a mad 
moment the countries of Europe are savagely con- 
demning to terrible suffering and hardships and almost 
certain death these lives and talents that have been 
saved, cultivated and enriched at the expense of so 
much thought and effort. Bodies that have been pro- 
tected by sanitary regulations secured after long, hard 
struggles ; muscles and minds conserved by short work- 
days; young men that represent so much in sacrifices, 
in aspirations and possibilities, are now part of the 
marvelous machinery of war and devastation. Can 
this be our boasted civilization? Can this be the 
Europe of which Tennyson sang: "Better fifty years 
of Europe than a cycle of Cathay"? 

War with its bloodshed and mangled flesh is a ter- 
rible thing. There is not a man marching or fighting 
now in the battalions of Europe who does not abhor 
cruelty and savagery. Yet let us not for an instant 
forget the whirl and the thrill of war, the compelling 
magnetism that attracts all to war even while it re- 

[IT] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

pels ; the wonderful emotion that leaps to life in men 
when the fatherland is in danger ; that subordinates all 
else to the high allegiance of service to country; the 
thrill and the wonder of it all as men lay aside personal 
interests for the common welfare; the bravery of it 
that goes straight to the heart. All these things steel 
men to hazard the horrors of war, and yet, is this tre- 
mendous European war a war for the fatherland, or 
is it not rather a war of aggrandizement and conquest? 
A war to divert the peoples from their constructive 
work of humanizing and democratizing tendencies? 

This stupendous conflict has shaken to its very 
foundations the structure of civilized society the world 
round. We of the United States have felt the pinch 
of it. We have had to adjust sharply to meet emer- 
gency conditions. World civilization is organized on 
an international basis. Civilization is based upon co- 
operation. Markets are supplied from international 
sources. Buyers come from all countries. Prices 
are fixed by international forces. Money, the medium 
for facilitating this exchange, responds to international 
influence. All supply and demand problems are now 
world-wide in scope. No nation lives unto itself alone. 
The problems of each nation are the common problems 
of humanity. 

Means of communication and transmission of infor- 
mation are and must be international in order to be of 
value. All countries of the world are bound together 
by ties of common interests in industry and commerce, 
mutual needs and interdependence. 

The big things of life and civilization are interna- 
tional. There are no national lines recognized by knowl- 

[18] 



LABOR AND THE WAR 

edge. The fellow workers spirit that has prevailed 
among the toilers, the teachers, and the students of 
all lands has done much to break down national and 
racial prejudice. To their credit be it said that the 
organized bodies of labor and learning vehemently pro- 
tested against this war. Organizations and associa- 
tions for the promotion and propagation of welfare 
and of knowledge are international. Sociology, eco- 
nomics, medicine, hygiene, sanitation, recognize no 
territorial boundaries. Humanitarian movements to 
further social insurance, to guard against industrial 
diseases, to prevent unemployment, are and must be 
international in scope. The custom of international 
exchange of fraternal delegates, professors and 
students has a very potent influence in establishing 
world friendship and good will among the people of all 
nations — conditions which minimize the possibilities of 
war. 

But political organization has ever been less flexible 
and less progressive than economic and social organiza- 
tion. Social and economic organization adapts itself 
necessarily to immediate needs and changes. Political 
organization is more artificial. Old forms are often 
retained so long that they are encrusted by a hard 
shell that permits of little development or change. Old 
forms generally become so rigid that they must be 
forcibly broken to readjust. This fact is illustrated 
by such organizations as the Hanseatic League of the 
fourteenth century, the Zollverein of the nineteenth 
century which was the prototype for the German em- 
pire, the commercial treaties and treaties of peace which 
bind together the republics of North and South 

[19] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

America. Commercial necessity taught the thirteen 
states that the loose union under the Articles of Con- 
federation must be welded into a strong national union 
under the Constitution. Preceding commerce must be 
the development of agriculture and industry within 
the different countries — these embody the brawn and 
the mentality of the toilers of the countries. Industry 
is the foundation of all civilization. The workers are 
the builders of civilization. 

Commerce is the great civilizer and paves the way 
for great ideals, some social, some political. Wher- 
ever commerce travels there a higher law and more 
democratic political institutions follow. As com- 
merce became nation-wide, government became na- 
tional in scope. Now that commerce has grown to 
world dimensions, government too must attain corre- 
sponding proportions. 

Government must be founded upon justice and 
morality. In ancient societies individuals undertook 
to enforce their own claims to justice and standards 
of morality. Each had the right to private warfare. 
With the development of society the duty of maintain- 
ing justice and peace was delegated to governmental 
agencies. The maintenance of justice and peace be- 
tween nations is now emerging from the same chaotic 
conditions which formerly characterized the relations 
between individuals. There are evidences which in- 
timate that intelligence will emerge out of this chaos 
— international solidarity of labor, international law, 
treaties of peace and commerce, arbitration treaties, 
The Hague Tribunal. With these accumulating in- 
stitutions to bind the nations together, there is de- 

[20] 



LABOR AND THE WAR 

veloping a code of international morality and a habit of 
mind necessary to enforce standards of international 
morality upon all. 

These things are the rudiments from which will 
emerge a world government, a world federation com- 
petent to do justice between nations and able to main- 
tain the peace of the world. That is the ideal we must 
seek to realize, which we must establish in the day of 
peace that we may dispel the war clouds ere the storm 
of conflict is upon us. War can be abolished only by 
eternal vigilance in protecting peace and in promoting 
the things that make for peace. Peace and the things 
associated with peace must be made of such value that 
men will not dare risk them to chances and the havoc 
of war. 

It is in accomplishing this end that the men and 
women of labor have been most effective. Their in- 
terests are identified with those of peace. War has 
never meant to them opportunity for gain or ex- 
ploitation. It has always meant to them privation, 
direst suffering, service on the firing line and in the 
actual fighting of the war, and bearing the burdens 
that follow in its wake. The heavy weight of the 
burdens of war has compelled the toilers to realize the 
futility and the wanton waste of war. Military agencies 
maintained during time of peace have been used against 
them in their industrial struggle to secure greater con- 
sideration and justice. They set their hands against 
policies and conditions that have a tendency to pro- 
mote war and have worked to create a sentiment hos- 
tile to war and the methods of war. 

Through organization and federation the toilers 
[21] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

have made their influence felt in the determination of 
national and international issues. The international 
organization of the workers has made the brotherhood 
and fellowship of all men a real force potential in the 
affairs of the nations. Solid opposition of the work- 
ing people has acted as a steadying force in many crises 
and a deterrent against aggression. Organized labor 
stands firmly against all injustice and oppression of 
the weak regardless of nationality. The workers have 
helped to construct the world's civilization and we de- 
mand that the results of their labor shall be protected. 
By our protests and by our demands we have widened 
the thoughts and the sympathies of men ; we have given 
to the world's conception of life understanding and 
reality. Our position is justified by years of burden- 
bearing, by weary muscles and dreary hearts. We 
have known the bitterness of the dark places of life 
and are determined to make them brighter and better. 
Working people have bought with their flesh and blood 
the right to a voice in determining the issues of peace 
and war. 

Our position can not be interpreted to mean lack of 
patriotism. We could not love our country so well, 
loved we not peace and honor more. The workers 
of America love their land. We reverence her good 
name, her dignity, her authority. There is no sight 
under heaven that so moves us and thrills us, and 
arouses our deepest emotions as the Stars and Stripes 
waving in the wind against the wonderful blue of the 
heavens. Would we fight for them? Yea, we would 
lay down our lives because of the great ideal which 
they typify. The flag stands for America, the cradle 

[22] 



LABOR AND THE WAR 

of liberty and freedom. It stands for the ideal of equal 
opportunity for all. Often we have blindly groped 
after that ideal — but it is that for which we reach; 
it is that which we shall have. 

Our Republic, founded upon principles of justice 
and equality, has inspired men of all lands. As out 
in the west arose our noble structure men weighed 
down by despotism, chained to burdens imposed by a 
specially privileged class, have watched with eager, 
anxious longing as we builded wider and higher the 
noble structure. They have seen it weather storms 
undaunted. They have seen and turned with hope- 
filled eyes to the problem of their own lands, deter- 
mined that those of their fatherland should enter into 
the noblest heritage of mankind — freedom of mind 
and body. 

America has been the inspiration of years — it is the 
hope of the present. Separated by the breadth of an 
ocean from other countries that have entrusted to their 
hands western civilization, America has held aloof 
from the plots and machinations by which the countries 
of Europe have heaped burdens on the backs of each 
other and have crushed their own people. Calm, free, 
unperturbed by old-world political jealousies and cut- 
throat policies, we have been working out the problems 
of human freedom. We have welcomed to our fold 
the strangers from all lands who have sought here 
opportunity and freedom. 

One hundred years ago, when the gigantic ambition 
and the sleepless energy of the great Napoleon had 
hurled down all the old political institutions of western 
Europe and had fomented wars and strife between 

[23] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

nations, we sought to maintain the dignity and the 
rights of a neutral nation. 

When they were denied us, we fought for them and 
won. During the hundred years that have elapsed be- 
tween that last European cataclysm and this one, we 
have grown from an infant nation into the full stature 
and might of a world power. Our beautiful land is 
one vast unbroken expanse, washed on both sides by 
oceans that separate yet connect us with the old worlds. 
We have delved deep into the riches of our country. 
We have built mighty factories and industries. We 
have sent the products of our hands and minds to 
all markets of the world. With it all and in it all we 
have tried to carry the ideal of human freedom and 
equality of opportunity. We have not always suc- 
ceeded in that. But we have tried. We have suc- 
ceeded in some things — that is our worth to the mil- 
lions who are striving for some degree of liberty and 
democracy. 

In this colossal horror that has befallen the peoples 
of Europe the eyes and hopes of all turn to America 
for sustaining aid. Our thoughts are of that America. 
Our fervent desire is that she may prove herself 
worthy of the great service that lies ahead of her. Our 
President has perfectly worded the desire of all citi- 
zens in these words: 

My thought is of America. I am speaking, I feel sure, 
the earnest wish and purpose of every thoughtful American 
that this great country of ours, which is of course the first 
in our thoughts and in our hearts, should show herself in 
this time of peculiar trial a nation fit beyond others to 
exhibit the fine poise of undisturbed judgment, the dignity 
of self-control, the efficiency of dispassionate action, a na- 

[24] 



LABOR AND THE WAR 

tion that neither sits in judgment upon others nor is dis- 
turbed in her own counsels and which keeps herself fit and 
free to do what is honest and disinterested and truly service- 
able for the peace of the world. 

While all the other great countries of the world 
have halted the normal interests of life, while their 
citizens have laid aside things which are of personal 
concern to respond to the stirring call of an instinct 
that is noble and great — the love of country — while 
the terror and the horror and the grandeur of war fill 
men's thoughts, America alone maintains her wonted 
peace and friendliness toward all mankind. 

Though our people came from the nations that are 
fighting the most terrible war of all history, though 
our hearts are very tender with sympathy, though we 
thrill with the bigness and the courage of it, though 
we shudder at the horror and the waste of it, not one 
wishes to see America drawn into this bloody battle of 
the nations. Dazed by the suddenness of this unthink- 
able horror, with eagerness born of pain, we seek tid- 
ings of the stupendous armies that are measuring every 
step of progress with mangled things that once were 
men and are marking each halting place with blood. 
Over and over we ask, Why, Why? 

As we look backward over the hundred years since 
the last Waterloo, we find some of the fundamental 
causes that inevitably lead to the apparently insufficient 
incidents that occasioned the war. When the allies 
met in Vienna to consider what disposition to make 
of the boundaries and governments that the Na- 
poleonic empire had swept away, they inaugurated a 
period of reaction. They opposed constitutionalism 

[25] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

and re-established autocracy under "legitimate" rulers. 
They safeguarded legitimacy by the mysterious some- 
thing that has for centuries been the bane of Europe, 
the "Balance of Power." The decisions, political and 
geographic, of the Congress of Vienna, were arbitrary 
and artificial as well as reactionary. In order to main- 
tain these findings the rulers of European countries 
found it expedient to depend upon the protection of 
militarism. National militarism resulted of course in 
international competitive militarism. 

But the spirit of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," 
that inspired the French Revolution, that had been car- 
ried to other countries by the French tricolor, and 
that had swept aside and made impossible the rem- 
nants of feudalism, did not die. It smouldered under 
the crust of reactionism. The spirit that sought and 
demanded freedom and democracy was quietly work- 
ing in the schools and in the common life of the work- 
ing people. It broke out in the revolutions of 1830 
and '48 and in the war of 1870. The autocratic gov- 
ernments set up by the reactionary Congress of Vienna 
were artificial in nature, founded upon and protecting 
artificial distinctions and regulations. Power was con- 
centrated in the hands of a few who were selected 
upon no logical basis. The many were subordinated to 
this despotism — though governed they were given no 
voice in determining the methods, the agents or the 
policies of the government. That government may 
be likened unto a pyramid with an irresponsible agent 
at its apex in control of all converging powers. 

Such government could not stand the tests. of reason 
or of justice. The forces of democracy made inva- 

[26] 



LABOR AND THE WAR 

sion after invasion, securing some degree of control, 
but the agent at the apex remained irresponsible and 
in his hands was placed determination of the destinies 
of the people. 

No one man is good enough or wise enough to be 
entrusted with the determination of peace and war for 
millions of fellow-men. No one man has the right 
to command fellow-men unless he has been entrusted 
with that power by the deliberate decision of the peo- 
ple. 

But democracy has been making headway and gain- 
ing recognition in Europe. Through organization the 
workers have secured real freedom in the affairs of 
the work-a-day world. They have secured for them- 
selves protection by law. The present government 
does not meet the needs or the demands of the peo- 
ple. But the enemies of democracy were planning 
the destruction of forces that were democratizing the 
laws and the government. 

The war that was declared bears most heavily upon 
the workers of Europe — they make up the rank and 
file of the armies; they endure the greatest hardships 
both at home and on the battlefield. If they live they 
will go home to find that they must begin all over 
again. The work of years will have been swept away. 
Savings, trade organizations, trade benefits, economic 
power — all will have vanished as the flowers of the 
fields. 

Regardless of what may be the outcome of the war 
even the most inadequate attempt to picture condi- 
tions in those war-devastated countries causes one to 
grow sick at heart and mind. Suffering piled upon 

[27] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

suffering; woe upon woe; horror upon horror. Pic- 
ture if you can the Belgium over which armies have 
fought — Belgium that has been ravaged and burned 
and soaked in human blood. Picture a land with her 
industry and commerce destroyed and the flower of 
her young manhood slain in a needless and murderous 
war. Think of the starved minds and bodies of the 
women and children and old men — think of the natures 
warped and embittered by suffering and injustice. For 
decades and for decades the blight of this war will 
cast its shadow upon that land. 

As for Germany, the devastating blight that fol- 
lowed in the trail of the Thirty Years' War will be 
but as the shadow in comparison with the terrible 
reality of the loss of her millions of young men in 
this carnage of unparalleled savagery. For the genius 
and power of trained minds have been prostituted to 
the service of war until now it is nothing but organized 
machine slaughter. Think of the artificial barbarous 
conditions existing under which men seriously assert 
that the holding of a particular geographic position by 
guns and armed forces is worth a million lives ! Worth 
a million lives — think of the meaning of a million 
lives. Think of the power of a million minds. That 
the gaining of a single city is worth a million men is 
an assertion of strange values. What manner of 
civilization is this that assigns values with such bar- 
barous disregard for human lives? 

Whatever may be the outcome of the inevitable 
Waterloo that will close the conflict that is so incredibly 
brutal and stupid, may those who shall be charged 
with the responsibility of determining the terms of 

[28] 



LABOR AND THE WAR 

peace see the sorrowing faces and hear the lonely 
voices of the children and the helpless old, may they 
heed the lives of the young men wasted or sacrificed, 
may they have understanding hearts to learn the in- 
finite wrongs of war. 

If there be any value in civilization, if there be any 
efficacy in humanity, if there be any meaning in the 
brotherhood of man, they will learn, and out of the 
chaos and carnage shall come the vanquishment of 
autocracy, the emergence of a society in which the 
people shall be supreme and in which men's thought 
shall be given to the things of peace. 

In the general reorganization that will follow, the 
workers must have voice and influence. That voice 
and that influence have ever been used for liberty, 
justice, and humanity. Though the workers have 
again and again suffered from the mistakes and the 
wrongdoings of others, whenever the opportunity has 
been afforded they have ever evolved something for the 
betterment of humanity and the establishment of jus- 
tice. 

When the time comes to determine the terms of 
peace for the present conflict all artificial standards 
and ideals must be swept aside. The only result that 
could in any degree compensate for the present de- 
struction of life would be the coeval destruction of 
militarism, autocracy, the fetish of the balance of 
power and the fallacy that political domination must 
follow industrial relations and control. If the Water- 
loo that shall close this war shall be the death field 
for these ghosts that have come down to us from stages 
of the earlier development of peoples, then some pro- 

[29] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

gress shall have been attained even though the method 
be cruel, stupid and blundering. 

Twentieth century nations must adopt as a principle 
of government that peace is a basis of all civilization. 
Peace is not a by-product of other conditions, but it 
is a condition that can be secured by agents and in- 
stitutions designed to maintain it. Peace is the funda- 
mental necessity for all government and progress — 
industrial, intellectual, social and humanitarian. With- 
out peace all these are as nothing. One of the main 
purposes of governments then must be the mainte- 
nance of international peace. 

The nations of Europe have professed to desire 
peace but their methods of securing it have been wrong. 
They have declared that they must be armed for peace. 
They have erected fortifications along their frontiers 
— for peace. The seas and their coastlines have been 
patrolled by fleets — for peace. They have constructed 
air fleets to infest the air — for peace. Their inven- 
tive skill has been used to perfect diabolical instru- 
ments for destroying human life — for peace. 

Truly a strange peace they hunted with these war- 
like manners and means. 

If your neighbor filled his pockets with guns and 
his yard with mines, would you charge him with zeal 
for maintaining the neighborhood peace? 

Quite in contrast with conditions in Europe is the 
relation that exists between the United States and 
the country just beyond the horizon stretching far to 
the northward. Canada is a great and a rich country. 
Many of her industrial interests are identical with ours. 
Yet there never has been serious occasion for such sus- 

[30] 



LABOR AND THE WAR 

picious distrust or jealous rivalries as to threaten armed 
conflict. The two nations developed side by side and 
maintained peace without the need of competitive 
armament or display of force. Always there has been 
a policy of honesty and sanity. During the past one 
hundred years, the United States-Canadian border 
line has not been "defended" by fortifications, 
patrolled by military guards, our lakes and rivers have 
not been protected by dreadnaughts, submarines or 
mines, the air has not been infested with warlike aero- 
planes and dirigibles, and there have been neither wars 
nor rumors of wars. Had we been obsessed with the 
mad purpose of defense by militarism, could the result 
have been the same ? What has been thoroughly tried 
and proved practical and desirable and has made for 
peace between the United States and Canada will be 
equally practical and desirable between other countries. 
The revolutionary and reform movements of 
Europe have broken down in this overwhelming crisis 
that has befallen the countries of Europe. These 
movements have failed because they were organized 
primarily for the purpose of inculcating theory and not 
for the purpose of putting theories into force. Peace 
associations have concerned themselves principally with 
theories and pious hopes for peace between men. These 
associations stand humiliated by the war they were 
powerless to prevent. Future organizations for the 
promotion of peace will have to aim at policies and in- 
stitutions to make peace a reality. Reform associa- 
tions will have to organize upon the same basis of prac- 
tical efficiency that has enabled autocracy to retain its 
hold upon governments. The few now dominate 

[31] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

even against the will of the many. Are the many ready 
to confess that they can not manage their interests 
with the same wisdom and effectiveness? Labor, 
democracy, and social reform will find their oppor- 
tunities in the overthrow of autocracy. 

Just as the governing aristocracies have studied ef- 
ficiency in attaining their purposes and in controlling 
the affairs of the country, so the people must perfect 
the agents and the methods of democracy. They must 
take in their own hands the ordering of their own lives 
and interests and insist that governments shall manage 
these things with justice and peace. 

The maintenance of justice and peace is worthy of 
all the expenditure of thought and effort and skill that 
have been given to the arts of war. Furthermore, these 
ends can not be attained without such expenditure. 
The peace of the world will be determined by the de- 
cision of the nations. 

In our own country the voice and the influence of 
the workers were used against the enslavement of hu- 
man beings and they were potent in the years of 
struggle to free the four million negroes who were in 
bondage under the American flag. When Hawaii be- 
came an American possession the working people of 
America were the first to call attention to the wrongs 
of their fellow workers on the islands. To them is 
due the credit of abolishing there the practice of 
peonage and the institution of slavery. They per- 
formed the same service for the Philippine Islands. Co- 
operating with the workers of the islands in the Pacific, 
American workers helped to press home upon the con- 
sciences of those responsible for the enactment and 

[32] 



LABOR AND THE WAR 

the enforcement of laws the wrongs and the injustice 
done to those half barbaric helpless victims. Now 
slavery and peonage have been legally abolished in all 
lands that are ruled by our government. 

When Porto Rico came under our control her people 
were still subject to Spanish laws that had prevailed 
in the island. Among them was a conspiracy law of 
the kind that has universally been used to prevent the 
working people from uniting and organizing to pro- 
tect themselves from the greed and tyranny of em- 
ployers. When Porto Rico came under the American 
flag Porto Rican workers, inspired by the American 
ideals of liberty, equality, and the right of each indi- 
vidual to self-development, associated themselves with 
the American labor movement for assistance in the 
hard work which lay before them — for the poverty, 
misery, and degradation of the Porto Rican workers 
can be realized only by tholse who have traveled 
through the island. The employers invoked the old 
Spanish conspiracy laws to imprison the leaders of 
labor organizations and to defeat the movement for 
the betterment of labor conditions. 

The American Federation of Labor immediately re- 
sponded to the call for aid in Porto Rico. We suc- 
ceeded in securing the release of their labor leaders 
from prison and in securing the repeal of the con- 
spiracy law, the most vicious and dangerous type of 
legislation that the workers have to face. 

When the toilers of Mexico turned to the American 
labor movement for aid and sympathy in their struggle 
to free themselves from the bonds of peonage and land 
conditions that denied them opportunities for self- 

[33] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

help, the American Federation of Labor presented 
their demands for the consideration of those who had 
the authority to decide the policies of the newly estab- 
lished government. 

The workers of America have learned that unfree- 
dom existing in any place under our government un- 
dermines and endangers the liberty of all. They have 
learned further that wherever oppression and unfree- 
dom exist in the world they threaten the freedom, the 
welfare, and the peace of all other lands. That is the 
reason labor organizations have an international fed- 
eration. That is the basis for our zeal for international 
peace. 

The workers of America are organized to fight the 
battle for industrial freedom and justice. That pur- 
pose has made them an active force in all the diverse 
interests that influence our problem. One of the most 
significant fights we have been waging during the past 
years is the effort to establish a fundamental principle 
necessary for real freedom. Although slavery had 
everywhere in the United States been legally abolished, 
yet the workers found their effort for self -protection 
and self-help thwarted and restricted by legal prece- 
dents, judicial interpretation, and applications of laws 
dealing with property. 

This was the influence of a philosophy evolved un- 
der conditions when workers were not free and their 
persons and hence their labor power were regarded 
legally as property in which their owners or employers 
had a property right. When the workers became 
physically free the traditional element in the law which 
concerned their labor power was unchanged. The ju- 

[34] 



LABOR AND THE WAR 

diciary looks backward for authority, not forward. 
It is necessary to change this legal philosophy in or- 
der to secure to workers the right to legitimate activi- 
ties which alone give freedom reality and value. Free- 
dom as an abstract declaration has little practical value. 
Real freedom, which consists in specific rights to do 
things, is the potent force that has brought the human 
race to its present state of progress and development. 

A worker can not be part human and part thing ; part 
free and part unfree. If he is a free human being that 
which is inseparable from his personality, which is 
part of his flesh and blood and nerve force, can not be 
classified as property. Employers may own plows, ma- 
chines, shovels, hammers, but they do not own the 
labor of any free man. Labor is the creative force, 
the highest expression of individuality. 

The Clayton antitrust bill that has been passed by 
the House of Representatives and the Senate declared 
as a legal principle of the law of our land: "THE 
LABOR POWER OF A HUMAN BEING IS NOT 
A COMMODITY OR AN ARTICLE OF COM- 
MERCE." That is the reason for declaring that 
labor organizations do not come under the pro- 
visions of trust legislation and that their legitimate ac- 
tivities can not be restrained or forbidden. This prin- 
ciple is the basis upon which all industrial liberty de- 
pends. It is the Magna Carta of America's workers. 
The labor provisions of this measure embody the 
highest, fullest conception of industrial freedom ever 
enacted into law. The declaration contained in section 
7 of the Clayton antitrust bill is of the greatest sig- 

[35] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

nificance — it deals with the fundamentals of industrial 
freedom. 

The workers of America may, on Labor Day, 1914, 
rejoice in the fact that the Senate and the House of 
Representatives have adopted the greatest measure of 
humanitarian legislation of the world's history. We 
stand foremost in the ranks of all nations. This 
measure will insure greater industrial justice and peace. 
It opens up an era of tremendous possibilities and un- 
dertakings for good. 

Other features of the Clayton bill limit and regulate 
the issuance of the writ of injunction which has been 
so grossly perverted by judicial abuse to defeat the 
workers in their struggle for more just wages, shorter 
workdays, and better working conditions. 

The enactment of this law will mark the beginning 
of an era of progress and betterment in the lives of 
those who work for wages. Their progress and wel- 
fare mean national progress and welfare. The hope 
and welfare of all nations is bound up with the destiny 
of America — the first great republic and now the 
country toward which the nations in distress are turn- 
ing for help in their overwhelming need. 

America with free institutions and opportunity for 
those of all walks of life has been an ideal and an in- 
spiration to many millions. Now secure in her isola- 
tion and her maintenance of justice and freedom, apart, 
undeafened by the roar of musketry, unblinded by the 
smoke of battle, unshaken by the passion of the bat- 
tlefields, she stands ready to hear the cries for mercy 
and fairness, ready to give her good offices for the es- 
tablishment of peace. This is the America that holds 

[361 



LABOR AND THE WAR 

our thought with a peculiar power. Great opportunity 
is now within her grasp. We desire for her wisdom 
that she may cleave to the part of a great people and 
may spurn the lesser things of selfish gain and passion. 

America has in her hands well-nigh limitless wealth. 
She controls resources not yet realized. Her citizens, 
gathered from all of the nations of the earth, are true 
and able and honorable. Hers is the responsibility of 
using these, all these, for humanity — humanity that 
recognizes neither race nor nationality. 

America is to become the clearing-house for all in- 
ternational intercourse. She has the opportunity to 
become the world's banker. She now becomes the 
world's greatest breadmaker. Her industries and man- 
ufactures alone remain undisturbed. She may become 
the world's great carrier of commerce. Her future 
depends upon how she uses this opportunity. 

Her great power and influence are moral. Whether 
that power and influence shall be used as befits a great 
and a free people will determine her future greatness. 
That she may prove to the world that there is such a 
thing as international morality, and that she may help 
the warring nations back to a plane of peace and jus- 
tice is the earnest desire of America's workers and all 
her citizens. Our hope-filled western skies are por- 
tentous with the bigness of freedom and the hope of 
humanity. We are confident of the coming of that 
period of which the poet sang: 

Men my brothers, men the workers, ever reaping something 

new, 
That which they have done but earnest of the things that 

they shall do; 

[37] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

For I dipt into the future far as human eye could see, 
Saw the Vision of the world and all the wonder that would 
be; 

Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails, 
Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly 
bales ; 

Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rain'd a 

ghastly crew 
From the nation's airy navies grappling in the central blue; 

i 
Far along the world-wide whisper of the south-wind rush- 
ing warm, 
With the standards of the peoples plunging thro' the thun- 
der-storm ; 

Till the war drum throbbed no longer and the battle flags 

were furled 
In the parliament of man, the Federation of the world; 

There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm 

in awe, 
And the kindly earth shall slumber lapt in universal law. 



[38] 



DEMOCRACY WITHOUT MILITARISM 

The labor movement of the world is the one agency 
whose members have been loyal to fatherlands in the time 
of peril and yet have with insistent emphasis and appeal 
upheld the sacredness of human life and opportunity and 
the brotherhood of man. While bearing burdens of the 
war, they are still maintaining standards that dignify human 
life, and are creating and directing influences that will 
have an important part in establishing peace and in the 
constructive work which shall make for greater justice in 
international relations. 

Before the American Academy of Political and Social 
Science, Philadelphia, Pa., April 30th, 1915. 

\\7" HEN men were thinking of international peace, 
* * secure in the conviction that there could never 
be another great war, suddenly all of the countries of 
western Europe were plunged into the most stupendous 
conflict the world has ever seen. The spirit of civiliza- 
tion had been brooding over the things of the common 
life, breathing into them an appreciation of the sacred- 
ness of human life. Civilization had been laying wise 
and skillful hands upon the forces of Nature to make 
them serve men, to promote their well-being and de- 
velopment. 

Infinite patience, thought, skill, energy, had been busy 
in the task of finding some new thing to conserve and 
to glorify humanity. There were minds rich in cul- 
ture, characters of infinite courage and hearts tender 

[39] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

with love of human beings that counted all gain that 
brought opportunity into the lives of men — oppor- 
tunity for physical, mental and moral health and de- 
velopment. 

In the midst of all this came the fearful war cry. 
We of America, far removed from the sound of drums 
and the march of mobilization, looked at one another 
and murmured, "It can't be true!" Grim realization 
came as we felt the shock of the revolutionary changes 
that paralyzed industry. 

The stupendous conflict shook to its foundations the 
structure of organized society. Industry and com- 
merce are organized on a world basis. Markets have 
international sources of supply and they meet the de- 
mands of international buyers. The monetary mediums 
for international exchange are responsive to interna- 
tional influences. The intricate structure of credit ex- 
tends its gossamer threads about all the markets and 
ports and bourses of the world. Supply and demand 
are estimated from a world viewpoint. Communica- 
tion was organized to meet the needs of world com- 
merce and industry. 

When the disrupting forces of war hit the world 
structure of civilization, then did we in the United 
States realize that the war is a reality. Though far 
away from the bloodshed, from the horror of the 
maimed and the dead and dying, yet something of the 
brutalizing spirit of war extended even to our isolated 
continent. 

Through no fault or act of theirs the working peo- 
ple of the United States have been made to feel the 
consequences of a war caused by the spirit of greed and 

[40] 



DEMOCRACY WITHOUT MILITARISM 

aggrandizement on the part of irresponsible govern- 
mental agents. Autocracy, secret diplomacy, mili- 
tarism, forced a war which brings grievous wrongs, 
losses and misery upon the wage workers of Europe — 
aye, which robs them of life itself — and which indi- 
rectly carries suffering and misery to the wage earners 
of all the world. 

The European war ruthlessly reversed the purposes 
and the ideals of civilization. War is always revolu- 
tionary and destructive of life and civilization. The 
outbreak of this war dislocated American markets and 
trade. 

The first stage following the cataclysmic struggle 
was one of stagnation. Business men, government of- 
ficials, scientists, commercial and industrial associa- 
tions considered carefully the conditions confronting 
them and estimated their needs and resources. The 
way problems have been solved and new opportunities 
utilized proves that Americans have qualities of adapta- 
bility and resourcefulness assuring continuous pro- 
gress. 

Necessity forces invention. American ingenuity and 
enterprise have not failed in this time of need. Ameri- 
can industries find they can supply many of their needs 
and have found uses for what was formerly industrial 
waste. The war has opened up tremendous economic 
opportunities — some temporary, others permanent. 
After the first reaction came an industrial impetus. 
Business reached after new opportunities. American 
financial genius protected our own interests and made 
this the world's money center. 

What has been done to meet industrial and financial 
[41] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

emergencies and needs has been due chiefly to private 
initiative and private enterprise. It is the American 
characteristic — ability to do things — that has served us 
in this time of need. That American spirit of self-re- 
liance and initiative is the most precious possession of 
the nation. It is the spirit that can dream and dare 
and achieve. It is invincible. 

Now turn to the human side of adjustment to war 
conditions. Have the men and women employed in 
industry and commerce been as carefully and wisely 
provided for as material interests have been? 

The first shock of the war which brought stagnation 
to industry resulted in the closing of shops, mills and 
docks and meant unemployment for wage earners. All 
along the Atlantic coast industry and commerce were 
dislocated; shipping was tied up; men found that the 
war had taken away their work, their source of liveli- 
hood. Their number was increased by the sailors from 
interned foreign vessels. Factories dependent upon 
European trade or products began to run part time and 
then stopped. During the period of readjustment many 
workers were without the means of earning their daily 
bread and they had but little laid aside. At the same 
time they were threatened with the menace of war 
prices. Six cent bread meant tragedy to east side New 
York and similar localities where wage earners live. 
The brutalizing spirit of war laid hands on American 
industry — workers were deprived of employment and 
were exploited by war prices which meant unwarrant- 
able and exclusive advantages to the profit-mongers. 

As the weeks went by the amount and extent of un- 
employment increased throughout the country. Un- 

[42] 



DEMOCRACY WITHOUT MILITARISM 

employment means to most of you here an industrial 
and social problem — to the wage earners it is a personal 
experience. It means hunger, misery, despair. Bread 
lines have been very long during the past winter. 
Women as well as men have been in these bread lines. 
A bread line leaves an indelible scar on the hearts of 
those who have undergone the humiliation. It means 
that a human soul has been beaten in the struggle for 
decent self-respect. 

Constructive efforts to meet this human need came 
from the workers. Wage earners are so close to the 
raw stuff of the experiences of the common struggle 
for a livelihood that they appreciate more keenly the 
meaning of unemployment and they know that their 
own well-being is very intimately involved. Unem- 
ployment in some callings means increasing the supply 
of available workers for many others. Organized 
workers are a power which can and does say to heart- 
less greed for profits — stop your brutality. Those 
wage earners who were organized were able to take 
care of themselves and to maintain American standards 
of living. Again as in the last financial crisis they 
raised the slogan, "No wage reductions," and warded 
off the policy whose cumulative effect would have 
shaken the whole economic structure. A policy of 
wage reductions would have destroyed confidence and 
hence would have undermined credit. 

Through their economic organization organized 
workers had the means by which they could make ad- 
justments necessary to protect human interests from 
impending perils. Those who are unable to defend 
themselves are always made to bear the brunt of hard- 

[43] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

ships. Organization is the method by which the work- 
ers can protect themselves from being made the burden 
bearers in all calamities and can secure an equitable 
participation in prosperity. In all cases it is power for 
self -protection that is their safeguard. The construc- 
tive efforts made to help the workers during this 
emergency were made by the labor organizations. As 
I said before, they stood solidly for maintenance of 
wages, which meant maintenance of American stand- 
ards of living and checking the diminution of purchas- 
ing power. 

The constructive power that protects the workers in 
war time is the same power that protects them in 
peace. The economic organizations were the agencies 
that enabled them to cope with unemployment and to 
relieve in some measure the distress caused by the war. 
Through trade organizations the workers are co-operat- 
ing with responsible national, state and municipal au- 
thorities to meet emergencies while at the same time 
safeguarding the workers from exploitation which 
naturally results from the ruthless, brutal spirit which 
war engenders. 

The labor movement of the world is the one agency 
whose members have been loyal to fatherlands in the 
time of peril and yet have with insistent emphasis 
and appeal upheld the sacredness of human life and 
opportunity and the brotherhood of man. While bear- 
ing burdens of the war they are still maintaining 
standards that dignify human life and are creating 
and directing influences that will have an important 
part in establishing peace and the constructive work 

[44] 



DEMOCRACY WITHOUT MILITARISM 

which shall make for greater justice in international 
relations. 

The United States as well as the whole world has 
suffered through the disrupting influence of the war. 
In the United States the organized labor movement has 
dealt constructively with the needs and the emergencies 
created by the war. 

Where production was decreased, wherever possible 
the officers and members of the organized labor move- 
ment provided that work should be equally shared, that 
those of their trade should not be added to the number 
of the unemployed. Through their trade benefits they 
helped fellow workers who were out of work, while 
the trade organizations assisted them in finding em- 
ployment. The trade union movement acted as a 
steadying force to all industry by steadily and de- 
terminedly opposing irrational, erratic changes. 

Organized labor furthermore made demands upon 
municipalities and all government authorities that pub- 
lic construction work should be continued where con- 
tracts had been let and that beneficent new work 
should at once be undertaken wherever possible. 

The organized workers were alert to opportunities, 
aware of their own interests, able to protect them- 
selves and those dependent upon them. They mani- 
fessed the American characteristics, resourcefulness 
and adaptability that enabled us all to weather the diffi- 
culties resulting from the war. We have fostered and 
developed the spirit of self-reliance and initiative nec- 
essary to national life. 

The workers upon whom war burdens have fallen 
most heavily have been the unorganized. Their suf- 

[45] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

fering has been inarticulate, helpless misery. They 
were without the means of expressing their misery 
or their needs. They have benefited indirectly from 
the efforts of organized labor but that did not relieve 
them of the heavy weight of the burdens of the indus- 
trial crisis. 

The army of the unemployed has been made up 
largely from the ranks of the unskilled workers. It 
is a well known policy of large corporations employ- 
ing unskilled workers to have available a greater num- 
ber of workers than they regularly employ. This con- 
dition is a menace to steady employment. It is in- 
tended not only to discourage efforts of workers to 
secure higher wages or better conditions of work, but 
is also used as an instrument to enforce lower stand- 
ards. Where there are two or three waiting for a 
job it takes more than human courage to make a stand 
for rights — the workers have to think each day of 
daily bread for the next day. To stop work means to 
go without food. 

This condition is largely the result of superinduced 
immigration. Shipping companies and big employers 
of unskilled workers, have stood for a policy of un- 
restricted immigration. For many years that policy 
did little harm, but now the frontier opportunity has 
ceased to exist and the number and the character of 
the immigrants are such that they can no longer be 
assimilated by the American nation. Some restric- 
tive policy must be adopted. 

In addition to a situation already grave, our nation 
must face after-war consequences. There is no doubt 
but that the war will be followed by a tide of emigra- 

[46] 



DEMOCRACY WITHOUT MILITARISM 

tion of unparalleled proportions. The countries that 
are now engaged in the bloody struggle will seek some 
way to escape caring for derelicts of war, the mental 
and physical wrecks and those who have been ruined 
financially. The incompetent and those who probably 
may become a burden upon the community will be en- 
couraged and perhaps assisted to emigrate. 

You have only to turn to our Southern border line 
for verification of this assertion. Responsible au- 
thority informs me that Mexican military authorities 
have been furnishing free transportation and otherwise 
encouraging the emigration of dependent women and 
children, and the men who are unfit for service in the 
army or unable to work. 

What is taking place on the Southern border is a 
very significant reminder of what will happen at the 
close of the European war. Now is the time to make 
provisions against that impending disaster. 

The end of the war will bring to our country an- 
other economic reaction. Those industries that have 
been stimulated because of a demand created by the 
war will come upon a period of idleness. New in- 
dustries that have been developed to supply articles 
which Europe furnished us before the war will have 
to meet competition. There will follow in our country 
a period of readjustment. Again the burdens of that 
transition will fall most heavily upon the workers, par- 
ticularly the unorganized workers. Organized workers 
in the main will be in a position to protect themselves 
through agreements with employers. The unorganized 
will be without the means of meeting the difficulties. 

The power of the workers to protect themselves is 
[47] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

of tremendous importance to the nation — it means the 
power to protect the bone and sinews of the nation ; to 
conserve the men and women who do the work neces- 
sary to the nation's life; to maintain unimpaired the 
standards and ideals of American free men. 

The lesson of the European war as it affects the 
American wage earners demonstrates again the value 
of the labor movement to a democratic people. It is 
the way by which the great masses of the nation can 
think out their industrial problems and order their own 
lives. 

The labor movement has also its social and political 
influence that will aid in establishing justice at the end 
of the war. It will be the greatest force in opposing 
reaction that always results from the brutalizing in- 
fluences of war. It will be the most potent force to 
compel relations that shall subordinate all else to hu- 
man welfare. 

When the wage earners refuse to bear the conse- 
quences of deeds and policies for which they are in 
no way responsible, then will those in authority con- 
sider more carefully, before they start, into activity, 
forces whose evil consequences will bring hardship and 
suffering. The working people are more clearly con- 
scious of the extent and the nature of their power than 
ever before, hence they are in a position to secure for 
themselves increasing recognition in determining the 
affairs of industry and of international relations. The 
wage earners will, I am sure, make their power felt. 

In addition to the industrial and commercial issues 
that the war has raised, the working people of the world 
are concerned as to what shall be determined with re- 

[481 



DEMOCRACY WITHOUT MILITARISM 

gard to the evil forces that are largely responsible for 
the war — autocracy and militarism. Through their 
organized economic power the wage earners exert a 
tremendous power in political affairs as well as in in- 
dustrial and commercial, and they propose to see to it, 
through their international economic organizations, 
that democracy shall be assured control in international 
affairs. 

Democracy must be established and endowed with 
power and authority. That can be done without mili- 
tarism. Militarism must fall through gradual dis- 
armament. 

Democracy will be maintained by able, free citizens 
alert to discern their own rights and to distinguish the 
right, able and willing to maintain justice for all. 

When democracy shall have established justice in 
international relations, then shall the wage earners of 
every land have greater opportunities to give their 
ideals reality in everyday life and dream and plan 
greater things for all mankind. They will no longer 
be unresisting pawns for war slaughter or the less 
spectacular slaughter of industry and commerce. In 
every relation of life organized labor will establish 
the principle of the sacredness of human life and will 
not only oppose the brutalities and the waste of war, 
but also the brutalities and waste of peace. 



[49] 



NATIONAL SELF-DEFENSE 

Every observer knows that there is no peace — all of life 
is a struggle, physical and mental. Progress results only 
from the domination of the forces making for freedom and 
opportunity over the forces of repression. 

Before the Sixteenth Annual Meeting of the National 
Civic Federation at Washington, D. C, January 18th, ipi6. 

T? OR seventeen months war such as has never been 
-*■ known in the history of man has been devouring 
life and consuming the handiwork of men. Such a 
stupendous horror has compelled men to think deeply 
of the principles underlying our institutions and the 
spirit that makes for human progress and liberty. 

Before the outbreak of the present war many be- 
lieved that a great war involving many nations was no 
longer possible; that men had developed ideals of jus- 
tice and of humanity that would prevent the possibility 
of their taking the lives of fellow men, even in the 
name of legitimate warfare. They hoped much — their 
ideals were untested. 

With the declaration of war the men of each country 
rushed to their flags. Soon there were mobilized thou- 
sands of men fighting for conflicting ideals. When it 
was necessary to decide whether they proposed to 
stand by and see another nation invade their father- 
land, trample upon their national ideals, ruthlessly dis- 

[50] 



NATIONAL SELF-DEFENSE 

regard solemn pledges given in treaties, they found 
that there were some things of higher value than peace. 
They found that there are dangers of peace more far- 
reaching than the dangers of war. They realized that 
it is better to fight and die for a cause than to main- 
tain peace and their physical safety at the sacrifice of 
their manhood and of the ideals that ennoble life. 

And yet it is not an unbeautiful theory that has been 
dissipated by the shot and the smoke of the European 
war. There were many who held that an organized 
society was possible upon a basis of the brotherhood 
of man, in which all had regard for the rights of 
others and would subordinate their selfish interests to 
the welfare of others. This ideal made paramount the 
sanctity of human life and regarded war as a relic of 
barbarism possible only because institutions of justice 
had not been sufficiently developed. Wage earners 
generally of all civilized countries proclaimed and in- 
dorsed this ideal and declared that they would use 
every means within their power to prevent war even to 
the extent of stopping all of the industries of the na- 
tions through a general strike. There were many ex- 
treme pacifists who could find no justification for war 
or for the use of force in international affairs. 

And I, too, found this ideal attractive. In a speech 
made in April, 1899, in Tremont Temple, Boston, I 
said: 

The organized wageworker learns from his craft associa- 
tion the value of humanity and of the brotherhood of man, 
hence it is not strange that we should believe in peace, not 
only nationally, but internationally. 

It is often our custom to send organizers from one country 
to another for the purpose of showing to our fellows in 

[51] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

other countries the value of our association in the labor 
movement. If international peace can not be secured by 
the intelligence of those in authority, then I look forward 
to the time when the workers will settle this question — by 
the dock laborers refusing to handle goods that are to be 
used to destroy their fellow men, and by the seamen of 
the world, united in one organization, while willing to risk 
their lives in conducting the commerce of nations, abso- 
lutely refusing to strike down their fellow men. 

My belief that war was no longer possible was based 
upon what I desired rather than upon realities because 
I felt so keenly the brutality, the destruction, and the 
waste of war. It seemed to me that war and condi- 
tions of war cut through the veneer of civilization and 
disclosed the brute in man. The consequence and the 
purpose of war accustom man to treat human life 
lightly. They make men callous to human suffering 
and they idealize force. No one can hear of the 
atrocities of the terrible carnage of the present war, 
of the destruction on the battlefields and on the high 
seas without a feeling of horror that civilized men can 
plan such methods, can use the skill of their minds 
and bodies and the wisdom of past generations to such 
terrible purpose. But what if these horrors done to 
the bodies of men shall prevent great horrors to the 
minds — the souls of men? 

The pacifists and those who hold to policies of non- 
resistance have failed as I had failed to understand and 
to evaluate that quality in the human race which makes 
men willing to risk their all for an ideal. Men worthy 
of the name will fight even for a "scrap of paper" when 
that paper represents ideals of human justice and free- 
dom. The man who would not fight for such a scrap 

[52] 



NATIONAL SELF-DEFENSE 

of paper is a poor craven who dares not assert his 
rights against the opposition and the demands of 
others. There is little progress made in the affairs of 
the world in which resistance of others is not involved. 
Not only must man have a keen sense of his own rights, 
but the will and the ability to maintain those rights 
with effective insistence. Resistance to injustice and 
tyranny and low ideals is inseparable from a virile 
fighting quality that has given purpose and force to 
ennobling causes to all nations. 

Though we may realize the brutality of war, though 
we may know the value of life, yet we know equally 
well what would be the effects upon the lives and the 
minds of men who would lose their rights, who would 
accept denial of justice rather than hazard their physi- 
cal safety. The progress of all the ages has come as 
the result of protests against wrongs and existing con- 
ditions and through assertion of rights and effective 
demands for justice. Our own freedom and republican 
form of government have been achieved by resistance 
to tyranny and insistence upon rights. Freedom and 
democracy dare not be synonymous with weakness. 
They exist only because there is a vision of the possi- 
bilities of human life, faith in human nature, and the 
will to make these things realities even against the op- 
position of those who see and understand less deeply. 
The people who are willing to maintain their rights 
and to defend their freedom are worthy of those 
privileges. Rights carry with them obligation — duty. 
It is the duty of those who live under free institutions 
at least to maintain them unimpaired. 

As the result of the European war there is hardly a 
[53] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

citizen who has not in some degree modified his opin- 
ions upon preparedness and national defense. The be- 
lief prevails that there must be some policy of pre- 
paredness and national defense, although there is wide 
diversion as to what policies ought to be adopted. 

Preparedness and defense are practically the reverse 
and obverse sides of the same problem. There are 
two lines of approach to this problem — one indirect, 
involving consideration of the development, health, and 
conservation of the citizens, and the other direct, in- 
volving the weapons of defense and specific plans for 
the use of power. 

In the past we have trusted much to the rugged 
physiques, muscles, and nerves trained and under con- 
trol, and ability to coordinate powers quickly to meet 
emergencies which belong to the outdoor life of a 
pioneer people. Life on the frontier developed physical 
strength and virile manhood. Mental and physical 
weakness could not survive in the dangers of that life. 
But the frontier has vanished. The majority of our 
citizens no longer live in the open, and they show in 
their physical development the effect of the restricted 
life of the city. They have not the physical strength 
or endurance that would fit them without further prep- 
aration to be called into service in a citizens' army. 

Since opportunities for physical training are not 
freely and readily available to all, some definite na- 
tional policy must be devised for physical training and 
physical preparedness of all citizens. Such a train- 
ing could be readily given through our public school 
system and other auxiliary agencies. 

Physical training is properly a part of educational 
[54] 



NATIONAL SELF-DEFENSE 

work, and therefore should be under the control and 
direction of public agencies. We are constantly com- 
ing to a better appreciation of what proper physical 
development and good health mean in the life and for 
the working ability of each individual. Physical train- 
ing and good health are just as important and just as 
necessary to all other interests of life as they are to 
national defense. The chief problem is that training 
of this nature should be in furtherance of broad, gen- 
eral usefulness and ideals and not be narrowly special- 
ized or dominated by the purpose of militarism. 

Physical training must fit citizens for industry, for 
commerce, for service in the work of the nation, as 
well as for service in defense of the nation. But physi- 
cal training and preparedness are insufficient. There 
must be a spirit among the people that makes them 
loyal to country and willing to give themselves to its 
service and protection. That spirit can not exist unless 
the citizens feel that the nation will assure to all equal 
-opportunities and equal justice. They must feel that 
they are a part of the nation with a voice in determin- 
ing its destinies. This spirit of loyalty depends not 
only upon political rights, but upon justice and right 
in the industrial field, aye, in all relations of life. 
^National preparedness involves also power to co- 
ordinate and to utilize national forces and national re- 
sources. War as it is being waged to-day is not de- 
termined merely by the men on the battle field, but also 
by the mobilization of the national resources, national 
industries and commerce. The real problem is the 
organization of the material forces and resources of 
the country, the coordination of these in the further- 

[55] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

ance of a definite defensive military policy. All of the 
power and resources of the belligerent countries are 
concentrated to sustain the armies in the field and to 
equip them with the necessary weapons of war. The 
contest between industries, the question of commercial 
control, of superiority of economic organization, are 
fully as important as the contest between the soldiers 
on the battle field. Whatever, then, is the necessary 
part of the organization of industrial and commercial 
life is an important factor in national preparedness. 

Our industrial and commercial development has been 
of a haphazard nature rather than in accord with any 
definite, constructive, statesmanlike plan. Because of 
the vast natural resources of our country and the 
variety of untouched opportunities, it has been pos- 
sible for us as a nation to achieve tremendous results 
without definite plans, without much wisdom, and with- 
out the use of the best judgment. Considering our op- 
portunities and the vast wealth of our country, to have 
failed would have been much more marvelous than 
the degree of success to which we have attained. As 
our population has increased, as free lands have dis- 
appeared, as there is no longer the former wide range 
of opportunity, success in the future will be more di- 
rectly the result of the best use of available oppor- 
tunities and of the best coordination of existing forces. 
As frontier opportunities have disappeared, so frontier 
business policies will no longer succeed. Commercial 
or industrial policies that aimed at immediate results 
with extravagant disregard for conservation or for 
economical utilization of materials will be replaced by 
better policies of developing commerce and industry 

[56] 



NATIONAL SELF-DEFENSE 

upon a basis that means constructive development in- 
stead of exploitation. The economic highwayman 
must disappear as did the frontier highwayman. 

Constructive development must have consideration 
for every factor concerned in production and must se- 
cure to each equal opportunities that will result in the 
best service and in the conservation of the future serv- 
ice. Such a policy will involve thorough organiza- 
tion of all the factors of production. This organiza- 
tion must extend to the human element in production 
in order that there may be accorded to the workers 
proper consideration of their needs and proper conser- 
vation of their labor power. 

Preparedness as viewed from this standpoint is a 
part of the larger problems of national development — 
physical, mental, economic. It is a civic, an economic, 
as well as a military problem. National development 
can be in accord with the highest ideals only when all 
citizens have the right to voluntary association to pro- 
mote their own welfare and to activities necessary to 
carry out the purpose of such organizations. This 
broad general policy includes associations of wage 
earners — trade unions. These associations of the work- 
ers must be recognized by all agencies, whether private 
or governmental, that are concerned with the life and 
the work of the workers^ 

Great Britain, in dealing with immediate problems 
of national defense, has found that the labor move- 
ment must be recognized as the natural and official 
representative of the wage earners. She has found 
that she can deal with national problems only when 

[57] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

she considers the ideals and the demands of the chosen 
representatives of the workers. 

But the principles of human welfare can not be 
ignored in military matters or in plans for national de- 
fense just as they can not be ignored in industry or 
commerce. That infinitely valuable and sacred thing 
— human creative power — and the safeguarding of 
human rights and freedom are of fundamental im- 
portance and are correlated with national defense and 
must not be sacrificed to any false conception of na- 
tional defense. For to what end will a nation be saved 
if the citizens are denied that which gives life value 
and purpose? 

The labor power of workers is to them their all. 
The deep significance of the protection and conserva- 
tion of their labor — their very lives — is what the Brit- 
ish Government of to-day has failed to understand. 
The deep significance of this declaration made a few 
days ago in England by an important labor organiza- 
tion has a meaning for us : 

Unless the Government is prepared to confiscate the wealth 
of the privileged classes for the most successful prosecu- 
tion of the war, the railroad workers will resist to the 
uttermost the confiscation of men whose only wealth is 
their labor power. 

Some employers of our country and some Govern- 
ment officials have refused to recognize organizations 
of wage earners, but organizations of wage earners 
are a necessary and an important part of the organiza- 
tion of industry and society, and any national policy 
that refuses to recognize and take into account such an 
important force must prove ineffective. 

[58] 



NATIONAL SELF-DEFENSE 

National policies, whether political or military, must 
be in accord with broad democratic ideals that recog- 
nize all factors and value each according to the serv- 
ice that it performs. There is a human side to all of 
our national problems, whether industrial, commercial, 
political, or military. It has been the general practice 
of governments to accord only to employers, the own- 
ers of capital, of the managerial side of commerce and 
industry, real participation in government and in de- 
ciding upon governmental policies. According to this 
custom the wage earners belong to the class of the 
governed, never to the governing class. This policy 
is a reflection of conditions existing in the industrial 
and commercial world. However, a change has been 
coming. The wage earners, through their economic 
associations, have been making the demand that those 
who supply the creative labor power of industry and 
commerce are surely as important to the processes of 
production as those who supply the materials necessary 
for production. They have, therefore, made demand 
that the human side of production shall at least be given 
as much consideration and as much importance as the 
material side. They demand that industry and com- 
merce shall be conducted not only in the interests of 
production but with consideration for the welfare 
and the conservation of the human beings employed 
in production. They have asserted the right that every 
policy affecting industry, commerce, financial institu 
tions, and everything that is involved in the organize 
tion of society in some way affects the lives of tho< 
concerned in the industries or occupations and the w 
fare of those who are the consumers. Therefore tt 

[59] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

demand that those who are concerned in the conduct of 
the industry or occupation must be given the same con- 
sideration as those who are to make profits by the in- 
dustry. They have declared that these are principles 
of human welfare and have demanded that these must 
be considered in determining national policies. This 
is a democratic ideal and one which will promote the 
welfare of all of the people. Hence, it has an impor- 
tant bearing upon national preparedness, for it means 
that the great masses of the people will be better fitted 
physically and mentally to be intelligent, able pro- 
tectors of the nation. 

In addition to policies of general preparedness, 
which are a part of the larger problem of national de- 
velopment and conservation, there must be some spe- 
cific plan and agency for national defense. Even the 
Socialists agree upon the necessity for wars of de- 
fense and for agencies of national defense. When 
war was declared the Socialists of Germany, of France, 
and of England flocked to the national standard to 
defend the flag. There is not a national Socialist 
organization in Europe that is not defending its par- 
ticipation in the war upon the plea of the necessity 
for national defense. The old international idealism 
of human brotherhood has, at least for this war, 
been shot to pieces on the battle field of Europe. They 
forgot their theories of pacifism and flew to arms to 
defend their homes, their families, and their govern- 
ments. 

And the Socialists of the United States have not 
escaped dissensions as the result of the war and are 
now in a bitter wrangle upon the degree of military 

[60] 



NATIONAL SELF-DEFENSE 

preparedness that ought to be adopted by this country. 
Some of the more violent pacifists are trying to force- 
fully eject from the party those who declare a policy 
of nonresistance as incompatible with the conditions 
that confront our Nation. Other Socialists, such as 
Charles Edward Russell, renounce their old dreams 
and acknowledge that human nature makes it neces- 
sary for us to be ready for national defense. Prom- 
inent members of the Socialist Party — Joshua Wan- 
hope and W. J. Ghent — declare that socialism is a 
revolutionary movement and hence Socialists can not 
renounce the use of force. Both declare that the So- 
cialist parties of the world have never taken the posi- 
tion of advocating Tolstoian nonresistance. Morris 
Hillquit has admitted that preparedness seems doomed 
to become the issue in the national convention and a 
plank in the Socialist Party platform. Henry L. 
Slobodin has said : 

The Socialists had many occasions during the last 50 years 
to deliberate upon this problem and declare the Socialist 
attitude on military preparedness. And not once did the 
Socialists declare against preparedness. On every occasion 
they declared that the Socialists were, in their own way, 
in favor of military preparedness. The Socialists always 
were against standing armies and huge military establish- 
ments. But they always were and now stand committed 
in favor of universal military training and a citizens' army. 

Recent dispatches from Berlin say that the executive 
committee of the Socialist Party has by a vote of 28 
to 1 1 adopted a resolution censuring 20 Socialist mem- 
bers of the Reichstag for attempting to thwart the 
party's policy by declining to vote in favor of the war 
credits. 

[61] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

Quite in contrast to this vacillation is the consistent 
attitude of the American Federation of Labor. The 
following declaration, made years ago, has stood the 
tests of the experiences of years. It embodies the wis- 
dom labor has gained in the struggle of life and work. 

A man who is a wage earner and honorably working at his 
trade or calling to support himself and those dependent 
upon him has not only the right to become a citizen 
soldier, but that right must be unquestioned. 

The militia, i. e., the citizen soldiery of the several States 
in our country, supplies what otherwise might take its 
place — a large standing army. 

The difference between the citizen soldiery of the United 
States and the large standing armies of many European 
countries is the difference between a republic and monarchy 
— it is the difference between the conceptions of liberty and 
of tyranny. 

While organized labor stands against the arbitrament of 
international or internal disputes by force of arms, yet we 
must realize we have not yet reached the millennium; that 
in the age in which we live we have not the choice between 
armed force and absolute disarmament, but the alternative 
of a large standing army and a small one supplemented by 
a volunteer citizen soldiery — the militia of our several States. 

The 19 1 5 (San Francisco) convention of the Ameri- 
can Federation of Labor reaffirmed this position by 
refusing to adopt resolutions which called upon all 
workers to desist from affiliating with any branch of 
the military forces. 

A great majority of our nation are agreed upon the 
necessity for adopting a definite policy for necessary 
national defense. Of course, there is not unity upon 
any one policy. Whatever plan may be adopted, the 
organized-labor movement of America, which is di- 
rectly representative of millions of organized wage 

[62] 



NATIONAL SELF-DEFENSE 

earners and indirectly representative of millions more 
of unorganized workers, demands that certain funda- 
mental principles must be regarded. 

All policies and plans for national defense must be 
determined by representatives of all of the people. 

The organized-labor movement, which is the only 
means for expressing the will and the desires of the 
great masses of our citizenship, asserts its right to 
representation in all committees, or bodies that decide 
upon military defense. The working people of all 
nations are always those most vitally affected by mili- 
tary service in time of peace or war. Upon them 
falls the burden of the fighting in the ranks and they 
have ever been expected to act as shock absorbers for 
the evil consequences of war. They have been the 
chief sufferers from evils of militarism wherever that 
malicious system has fastened itself upon a nation. 
Since they have been the victims of the hurtful poli- 
cies of military defense, they will be the most inter- 
ested in safeguarding our own national plans from 
dangers and from evils of militarism that have been 
disclosed by the experiences of other countries. 

Preparedness is something very different from 
militarism or navalism. Both leave an indelible im- 
pression upon the nation, one for freedom and the 
other for repression. Militarism and navalism are 
a perversion of preparedness — instead of serving the 
interests of the people, the people are ammunition for 
these machines. They are destructive to freedom and 
democracy. 

\An understanding of human nature and of condi- 
tions is convincing proof that every nation must have 

[63] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

some means of self-defense. The agencies and poli- 
cies for this purpose must be carefully chosen. 

The labor movement has always been a leader in 
the cause of democracy. The labor movement de- 
mands democracy in all things, including military or- 
ganizations and institutions of the country. It holds 
that policies and methods of self-defense are best safe- 
guarded when there is equal opportunity for all to 
become members of whatever organizations and in- 
stitutions, whether military or otherwise, exist 
throughout the country. Not only must entrance to 
all institutions be freely and equally accorded to all, 
but the military must be democratically organized, 
democratically officered, and under the control of 
heads who are responsible to the citizens of the land. 

In addition to the regular army there must be a 
citizenship physically fit, ready and able to serve. 
Equal opportunity for military training must be pro- 
vided for the citizenship generally — opportunity at- 
tended by provisions that make it equal in reality and 
truly democratic. 

All agree that physical training with knowledge and 
the ability to bear and use arms will have a wholesome 
effect upon the health, strength, and preparedness of 
the people of the United States. If that training is 
given through voluntary institutions, organized upon 
a democratic basis, it will have a wholesome effect 
upon the civic life of the nation also. 

Democratic spirit is essential. Any plan that rec- 
ognizes professions or other distinctions will tend 
toward military castes, a condition incompatible with 

[64] 



NATIONAL SELF-DEFENSE 

the freedom, the spirit, and the genius of our Repub- 
lic. 

Absolute democracy in voluntary service for na- 
tional defense will have an effect upon all other rela- 
tions of life. It will make for better understanding. 
It will bind all together in unselfish service and 
broaden and deepen that which constitutes the com- 
mon life of our nation. Men can not resist the ap- 
peal of human nature. 

The labor movement is militant. The workers un- 
derstand the necessity for power and its uses. They 
fully appreciate the important function that power ex- 
ercises in the affairs of the world. Power does not 
have to be used in order to be potential. The very 
existence of power and ability to use that power con- 
stitute a defense against unreasonable and unwar- 
ranted attack. Ability and readiness for self-defense 
constitute a potential instrumentality against unnec- 
essary and useless wars, or the denial of rights and 
justice. 

The labor movement has never advocated the aboli- 
tion of agencies for the enforcement of right and jus- 
tice, or for the abolition of the military arm of gov- 
ernment, but it does demand that these shall be so or- 
ganized as to prevent their misuse and abuse as a 
means of tyranny against the workers, and to pre- 
vent the development of pernicious results that have 
grown out of militarism, the building up of a sepa- 
rate military caste and the subversion of civic life to 
military government and military standards. When 
military institutions and military service are separated 
from the general life of the people they become sub- 

[65] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

versive to the ideals of civic life, they become danger- 
ous to the best development and the best interests of 
the nation. 

The rights and privileges of citizenship impose a 
duty upon all who enjoy them. That duty involves 
service to the nation in all relations of the common 
life, including its defense against attack and the main- 
tenance of national institutions and ideals. 

There are no citizens of our country who are more 
truly patriotic than the organized wage earners — or 
all of the wage earners — and we have done our share 
in the civic life of the nation as well as in the na- 
tion's wars. We have done our share to protect the 
nation against insidious attacks from within that were 
directed at the very heart of our national life and 
would have inevitably involved us in foreign compli- 
cations. The wage earners stood unfalteringly for 
ideals of honor, freedom, and loyalty. Their wisdom 
and their patriotism served our country in a time of 
great need. No one can question that the wage earn- 
ers of the United States are patriotic in the truest 
sense. No one can question their willingness to fight 
for the cause of liberty, freedom, and justice. No one 
can question the value of the ideals that direct the la- 
bor movement. 

The labor movement takes the position that plans 
and policies for national defense and preparedness 
must be in accord with an educated conscience which 
can discern values, and is able and alert to distinguish 
the vital from the less important, and willing to insist 
upon the ideals and standards of justice, equality, and 
freedom. 

166] 



NATIONAL SELF-DEFENSE 

Every observer knows that there is no peace — all of 
life is a struggle, physical and mental. Progress re- 
sults only from the domination of the forces making 
for freedom and opportunity over the forces of re- 
pression. 

I may summarise the situation into these few con- 
crete suggestions : 

1. The recognition of and cooperation with the or- 
ganized-labor movement in all fields of activity — in- 
dustrial, commercial, political, social, moral defense. 

2. Establishment and extension of the citizen sol- 
diery, democratically organized, officered, adminis- 
tered, and controlled. 

3. Prohibition of the use of the militia for strike 
duty. 

4. Education of wage earners upon an equality with 
all other citizens in manual training, physical and men- 
tal development, in organizing, officering, administer- 
ing, and leading in the operations of a military char- 
acter for the defense of our country. 

5. Industrial education and vocational training as 
part of the educational system of the States, with 
financial aid of the Federal Government. 

6. Education of the young, physical and mental, in- 
cluding the art and the duty of defense, the ability to 
bear arms, the inculcation of the ideals of democracy, 
civic rights, and duties and obligations. 

7. Inculcate in all our people a social conscience for 
a better concept of industrial justice. 

The thoughts and suggestions I have submitted 
should commend themselves to the serious and favor- 
able consideration and action of all of our people — 

[67] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

all their groups and associations. Put into actual op- 
eration they will make not only for immediate effec- 
tive preparedness for defense, but will prove the po- 
tential means for permanent preparedness and de- 
fense, and at the same time make all our people more 
efficient in their every endeavor, and in addition safe- 
guard the spirit of justice, freedom, democracy, and 
humanity. 



[68] 



LABOR AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 

The bitter experiences of this war will prove to all 
nations that the system of small group alliances, armed to 
the teeth and eternally growling at one another, is a poor 
way to run the business of the world. It seems practically 
certain that instinct, as well as reason, will react against 
this system of armed peace toward some larger federation 
of the nations. 

Convention of the League to Enforce Peace, Washington, 
D. C, May 26th, 1016. 

"^fO class has more to lose and less to gain in war 
■*■ ^ than the workers. No class renders such sacrificial 
service during war and bears such staggering burdens 
after war as does labor. In war, Labor sees the results 
of years of struggle for wider justice swept away. In 
one mad moment the clock of industrial progress may 
be turned back for a generation. War diverts the 
mind of peoples from the constructive work of hu- 
manizing and democratizing the relations of men. 
Recognizing them, working men the world over have 
avowed their allegiance to the cause of peace and have 
sworn undying opposition to the forces that make for 
war. 

Before the present war, the working people of the 
several countries now in conflict sincerely gave inter- 
national pledges that they would not fight each other. 
I confess that I banked strongly on these pledges, but 

[69] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

in an hour of crisis, brought about by forces over 
which working men had little control, their pledges 
were shattered by the hurried ultimatum of Kaiser and 
King, or President and Czar. Secret diplomacy . and 
arbitrary autocracy lifted the battle standards, raised 
the cry that the integrity of the fatherland was at 
stake, and placed the working men of all the nations in 
a position where adherence to their pledges and to the 
larger interests of humanity would have branded them 
as traitors. Under the urgency of the situation, with 
autocracy and militarism resorting to their accustomed 
stage tricks for arousing patriotic emotions, instinct 
prevailed over reason and the laboring men of the na- 
tions rushed into the paths that had been marked out 
by the diplomatic and ruling classes. 

But when the smoke of this conflict is cleared, with 
renewed energy, the laboring men of the world will 
begin to lay anew the foundations for an international 
peace that will safeguard and minister to the interests 
of justice, democracy, and larger opportunity for all. 

But for even a more immediate reason, America's 
workers are vitally interested in the kind of settlement 
that shall come at the end of the war and in its effect 
upon industrial conditions in the United States. For 
it is obvious that at the end of this war, Labor may 
have to enter into great struggles to get and hold its 
just dues. These struggles may become more acute 
in the United States should an industrial reaction en- 
sue after the close of the war. 

Organized labor stands, of course, for group action 
instead of an individual competitive scramble with 
those in direct need setting the standard. Of course, 

[70] 



LABOR AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 

when there is a scarcity of work and a multitude of 
workers, collective bargaining faces an added diffi- 
culty. 

And yet such conditions are the definite outlook, if 
the settlement of the present war is an ordinary one, 
a mere diplomatic jockeying on the part of the na- 
tions for the best position in the next race for arma- 
ments, the kind of settlement that is sure to be made 
unless labor, agriculture, business, the chief elements 
in life and all classes, can effectively cooperate for a 
different and better kind of settlement. 

Let me state briefly what will cause this reaction, 
if it comes. If, at the end of this war, nothing but 
war is left as a method for settling the future disputes 
that are bound to arise between nations, every nation, 
our own included, will be forced into an extravagant 
competition in armaments as a defensive preparation 
against the next great conflict that will be but a ques- 
tion of years. The interest bills and the expense of 
reconstructing demoralized industries will be burden 
enough to bend the back of Europe for a generation, 
but if there be added the greatest naval and military 
appropriations of history, it becomes clear that Europe 
will face the most desperate need of income she has 
ever known. To meet this need, Europe must carry 
over into the economic struggle for the recovery of 
the markets of the world much of the grim spirit of 
sacrifice that she has shown in war, and institute the 
most severe and destructive competition known to in- 
dustrial and business history. In that competition, 
our democracy, its institutions, its methods, and its 

[71] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

prosperity will be put under a greater strain than it 
has ever known. 

Whether or not this suicidal competition is to be 
inevitable depends, largely, upon whether or not the 
mind and heart of the world unite in substituting a 
higher standard of morality-law for war, in the set- 
tlement of future disputes between nations, thereby 
making less necessary another competitive race for 
armaments, and thus removing one of the biggest ex- 
penditures that will make necessary the destructive 
race for trade which I have mentioned. 

The fear of an industrial and business reaction in 
America is not born of theory, but is based upon evi- 
dent proof that the present military war is to be fol- 
lowed by an economic war unparalleled in the inten- 
sity and destructiveness of its competition. Definite 
organization is already under way in practically all of 
the nations of Europe in preparation for a race for 
markets that will be the goal of this economic war. 
This organization is being directed not only by the 
governments of Europe, but also by the private indus- 
trial and business interests of Great Britain, France, 
Russia, Germany, and other belligerents. It is the de- 
clared purpose of the statesmen and commercial lead- 
ers of Europe to convert the present military alliances 
into future trade alliances. The plans being made for 
this economic war are animated not only by a desire for 
retaliation against former enemies, but to capture the 
greatest possible share of the trade of the world, as 
a means for liquidating war debts, sustaining credit, 
rebuilding war-damaged industries, and financing such 

[72] 



LABOR AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 

military preparations for the future as conditions may 
render inevitable. 

Every day brings added proof also that the nations 
of Europe will, at the end of the war, set up formid- 
able tariff barriers that will seriously restrict trade 
between the nations now at war and force them to 
compete more keenly in the neutral markets of the 
world, including the invitingly rich market of the 
United States. The erection of these tariff barriers 
will be forced upon the governments of Europe, not 
only to meet the urgent need of revenue, but also to 
make each nation as nearly self-sufficient as possible, 
for this war will have proved and enforced the fact 
that a nation that could most nearly supply all its 
needs by its own industries were it walled in from the 
world, will be best able to protect itself and conserve 
its interests in the event of war. 

The extraordinary pressure for funds will force ex- 
ports from Europe upon a bigger scale than ever be- 
fore. Europe will be more eager to sell and less able 
to buy than ever in history. If Europe exports at a 
maximum and imports at a minimum, the outlet for 
the products of American labor will, of course, be re- 
stricted. The poverty of Europe will make her not 
only a poor customer but also a fierce competitor. Our 
whole problem of foreign trade will be made increas- 
ingly difficult. The result may be the piling up in 
America of a great surplus of manufactured goods. 
Even before the war, we were beginning to feel the 
pressure of our surplus and the necessity for increased 
foreign trade. Such a serious limitation upon the ex- 
portation of American goods, as any extensive busi- 

[73] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

ness reaction after the war would involve, would, in 
a short time, make for scarcity of work and react in- 
juriously upon American labor. 

Going back a moment to the proposition with which 
we started : The prosperity and welfare of American 
labor are largely dependent upon the prosperity and 
welfare of the American nation. Granted great pros- 
perity to the nation, with a wide margin of profit to 
the employers, and granted the proper organization of 
labor for collective bargaining, there is always the 
chance, at least, to reach justice and equity; but if the 
United States suffers a serious business reaction, the 
American employer may have a less margin on which 
to deal with the problem of wages, and collective bar- 
gaining will face an increasingly difficult problem. 

All of which means that American labor has far- 
reaching interests at stake in doing its share to help 
bring about such a settlement of the present war as 
will prevent any abnormal reaction upon the prosper- 
ity of the United States, and will give the industrial 
and business interests of the whole world an oppor- 
tunity to compete along more nearly normal lines. 

But above and beyond the desire of America's work- 
ers to secure a settlement that will safeguard their 
own and the nation's material interests, is their desire 
to see a settlement that will render war less probable 
and peace more permanent in the future; for the in- 
terests of the men and women of labor are identified 
with those of peace. War has never meant for them 
opportunity for gain or exploitation. It has always 
meant to them sacrifice and suffering in the actual 
fighting of the war and the bearing of heavy burdens 

[74] 



LABOR AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 

after the war. Certainly working people have bought 
with their flesh and blood the right to a voice in de- 
termining the issues of peace and war; and in the 
general organization that will follow the present war, 
the workers will insist upon having voice and influ- 
ence. Labor is committed to the principle that peace 
is the basis of all civilization. 

Peace is not a chance by-product of other condi- 
tions; it is the fundamental necessity of all govern- 
ment and of all progress — industrial, intellectual, so- 
cial and humanitarian. One of the main purposes, 
therefore, of governments and of all classes within 
governments must be the maintenance of more per- 
manent international peace. 

Since the burdens of war fall more heavily upon 
the workers than upon any other class, and since war 
diverts attention from the progress of that social and 
industrial democracy which holds the hopes of Labor 
in its balance, it follows that Labor, more than any 
other class, is interested in the establishment and 
maintenance of a more permanent international peace. 

Although bearing most of its burdens, Labor has had 
little to say in the declaration and conduct of the 
wars of the past, but in self-defense and in the in- 
terest of civilization, Labor must have an increasing 
voice in the peace of the future. 

In any program looking toward the establishment 
of more permanent peace among nations, Labor will 
insist upon the following principles : 

i. It must be a program under which the military 
forces of the world will be rescued from the dicta- 
tion of arbitrary autocracy and absolute secret diplo- 

[75] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

macy and dedicated to the maintenance of a higher 
standard of morals, law and justice; a program that 
will so safeguard the use of military power that it 
cannot be used by the reactionary forces of privilege 
in imperialistic aggression, or dragged like a red her- 
ring across the path of democratic progress. 

2. It must be a program elastic enough to admit of 
those fundamental changes that the growing life of 
the world makes inevitable. Any international ar- 
rangement that does not afford peaceful methods of 
securing the results that now can be achieved only by 
successful fighting will make little headway against 
war. Labor will oppose any federation of nations so 
organized that the more powerful nations can use the 
machinery to maintain the status quo against the de- 
mands for change made in the interest of democracy 
and larger opportunity for the masses. 

3. It must be a program under which the small na- 
tion, as well as the large nation, will have a free hand 
in every just and individual development; a program 
that will make it impossible for a few strong nations 
to dictate the policies and development of the world. 
It must not deny to small and dependent states that 
final right of revolution that sometimes is the only 
road to justice and freedom. 

4. It must be a program that will give the masses 
greater influence in those decisions that plunge nations 
into war; that is to say, a program under which the 
powers of autocracy and absolute secret diplomacy 
cannot, over night, rush a nation into war before the 
citizenship of the nation has a chance to express it- 
self. 

[76] 



LABOR AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 

5. It must be a program under which the interna- 
tional machinery that is created will afford a medium 
through which all classes of society can voice their 
judgment and register their demands. We must not 
delude ourselves into thinking that the international 
problem will be solved entirely by the establishment 
of an international court along traditional lines, pre- 
sided over by lawyers to pass judgment upon viola- 
tions of established international law. The fact is 
that the real causes of modern wars are not so much 
violations of established law, as they are conflicts over 
new problems and new needs that have not yet be- 
come a part of international law. So that any ade- 
quate international program must include the estab- 
lishment of a system of stated international confer- 
ences in which the representatives of such democratic 
interests as labor and business can present and dis- 
cuss, not under any established rules of evidence, but 
in the spirit of impartial examination, those difficulties 
and differences that threaten to give rise to war. 

These principles represent not only the interna- 
tional program for which Labor will work in the fu- 
ture, but they represent essentially the program for 
which Labor has been contending through the years. 
But Labor understands that a program so vast, involv- 
ing as it does the interests of every human group, can- 
not be established and maintained by one class alone. 
Labor understands that humanity is one, that the prob- 
lem of humanity is a common problem, that any in- 
ternational order of things to be permanent must safe- 
guard the interests of all classes. Therefore, Labor 
is profoundly concerned in the creation and adoption 

[77] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

of some international program for which all classes, 
Labor, agriculture and business, can work side by side 
in sincere cooperation for those principles that will 
best insure the triumph of justice and opportunity for 
all classes the world over. 

In so far as the program of the League to Enforce 
Peace represents an effort to meet the conditions I 
have outlined, it demands the interest and careful 
scrutiny of every man who has the interests of labor 
at heart. 

As I understand it, the essential proposals of the 
League to Enforce Peace are these: 

1. That the nations shall band themselves together 
in a federation and agree to delay, in every instance, 
the actual declaration of war until the dispute at issue 
has been thoroughly examined by an international tri- 
bunal, and the public opinion of the world given a 
chance to express itself. 

2. That there shall be an International Court to con- 
sider what can be decided upon established law and 
evidence. 

3. That there shall be a Council of Conciliation to 
consider questions that are not ordinarily regarded 
as justiciable, such as questions of national honor. 

4. That in addition, there shall be at stated inter- 
vals international conferences for the progressive 
amendment of international law. 

5. That the nations of the League shall agree to 
turn their united strength — first in the form of a 
business and economic boycott, and finally in con- 
certed military action if the boycott is not effective — 
against any one of their number that wages war with- 

[78] 



LABOR AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 

out first submitting its dispute for complete examina- 
tion to one of the International Tribunals created. 

The hope of the League's program is, I take it, that 
by forcing nations to stop and count ten before strik- 
ing, there will result a cooling-off period that will 
greatly reduce the probability of war, if not prevent 
most wars. There is no proposal that the decrees of 
the Court or Council shall be enforced; if, after the 
decision of the Court, a nation feels that it must fight 
to gain justice and freedom for its rightful develop- 
ment, the League provides no organized penalties. The 
program does not propose any tightly organized inter- 
national government, but suggests that the nations 
shall cooperate to form a sort of International Vig- 
ilance Committee and say: If any one nation starts 
to "shoot up" the world without first giving legal 
processes a chance to adjust the difficulty, the other 
nations shall treat that nation as an outlaw and shall 
pool their economic and military power in an effort 
to force it to give law a chance. 

It is not for me, by word of mouth, to commit the 
laboring men of America to any particular program 
in international affairs ; but I may be permitted to com- 
ment upon the way the proposals of the League to 
Enforce Peace appeal to me as a representative of 
labor. 

The League's program wisely refrains from at- 
tempting to stop the present war. Hating war as I 
do, I am free to confess that if I could stop this war 
now by a turn of my hand, I would not do it. I hold 
that something must be determined by this war, and 
that something is, whether the future belongs to au- 

[79] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

tocracy and militarism or to democracy, liberty, and 
humanity. These are the points at issue and they have 
not yet been determined. 

The League's program also wisely recognizes that 
we have not yet reached a point where the total dis- 
armament of nations is a practically possible pro- 
posal. The labor movement is a militant movement, 
and the workers understand the necessity for power 
and its uses. The labor movement has never advo- 
cated the abolition of agencies for the enforcement of 
right and justice, or the abolition of the military arm 
of government, but it does demand that military forces 
shall be so organized as to prevent their misuse and 
abuse as instruments of tyranny against the workers; 
to render impossible the pernicious results of mili- 
tarism — the building up of a separate military caste 
and the subversion of civic life to military govern- 
ment and military standards. If this program can 
succeed in making our military and naval forces not 
only our arm of defense, but, in addition, our contri- 
bution toward the maintenance of more permanent 
peace throughout the world, a long step in this di- 
rection may have been taken. 

The League's program wisely recognizes the dan- 
ger of creating a League of Nations that would un- 
dertake to enforce the decisions of an International 
Court, and contents itself with enforcing the submis- 
sion to an International Court of all disputes for ex- 
amination. Until democracy is more nearly univer- 
sal, until democracy becomes a social and industrial 
fact as well as a political watchword, a League with 
power to enforce decisions would almost certainly be- 

[80] 



LABOR AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 

come the repressive tool of the reactionary and priv- 
ileged forces of the world. 

The League's program, by suggesting the use of an 
economic boycott on an international scale as a means 
of enforcing law and justice, pays a tribute to the 
increasing importance and power of industrial forces 
in world affairs. But such a boycott must be left to 
the voluntary action of the peoples of all nations. 
What an International Court or League should do is 
to invite the representatives of all nations involved 
in a dispute for a hearing and then declare its findings, 
holding the nation at fault, guilty of such violations 
as the judgment of the Court or League may deter- 
mine. 

If a nation or nations fail or refuse to be repre- 
sented, judgment should be taken by default, but in 
either event the opinion of the Court or League should 
be declared to the world as to which nation is re- 
sponsible for the threatening conditions. An official 
or compulsory boycott must be avoided at all haz- 
ards. 

Labor will insist that such careful thought and con- 
structive statesmanship be put into the working out 
of the methods in each country by which a boycott 
would be applied, that the workers would be insured 
against the possibility of being forced to bear more 
than their just share of the necessary sacrifice in- 
volved, and that their freedom of action would not 
be jeopardized. The wage earners of the United 
States, who have so often proved their patriotic loy- 
alty in the civic life of the nation, as well as in the na- 
tion's wars, stand ready to bear their just share of any 

[81] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

economic sacrifice that may be necessary to maintain 
the peace of the world, but they must insist that it be 
only their just share. 

But the final question is not whether, at this stage, 
we all agree upon every detail of a program. Evidence 
is daily accumulating that indicates that some such a 
League of Nations is practically certain to be formed, 
if not at the end of this war, in the not far distant 
future. The bitter experience of this war will prove 
to all nations that the system of small group alliances, 
armed to the teeth and eternally growling at each other, 
is a poor way to run the business of the world. It 
seems practically certain that instinct, as well as rea- 
son, will react against this system of armed peace 
toward some larger federation of the nations. Since 
such a Court or League as contemplated appears to 
be the inevitable goal toward which the whole evolu- 
tion of law and government is tending, laboring men 
of this and every other nation will feel it their duty 
and privilege to lift their voice in counsel at every 
step of the plans and propaganda, in order to make 
more certain the triumph of democratic principles and 
methods, in whatever may be the final form of such 
an international institution. 



[82] 



A PLEDGE OF SERVICE 

Democracy must prevail; it cannot, it dare not be de- 
feated. 

With the Committee on Labor, Advisory Commission, 
Council of National Defense, at the White House, May 15th, 
1017. 

'TPHE ladies and gentlemen who are here assembled 
■*■ form a Committee on Labor for the Conserva- 
tion of the Health and Welfare of Workers of the 
Council of National Defense. On April 2nd, we had 
our first general meeting of all those who had accepted 
membership upon that Committee. Since then we 
have organized our general committees and educa- 
tional committees to carry out the comprehensive work 
delegated to my committee. The Executive Commit- 
tee of eleven has met several times, sometimes twice 
a week and other times once a week and always for the 
whole day. 

My general committee and executive committee, as 
well as the other committees, are made up of men and 
women in all walks of life. There are representative 
labor men and labor women, officers or representatives 
of the organized labor movement in their respective 
districts or trades, and there are men, the largest busi- 
ness men, the biggest captains of industry in all our 
country, or in all the world. We have college pro- 

[83] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

fessors, publicists, public men, officers of our army 
and of our navy, men and women, as I say, who have 
given some service to the country in some form or 
other, who, at my invitation, have voluntarily accepted 
service in order to be helpful in the great cause in 
which our country is now engaged. 

During this struggle which we have just entered, 
which will entail sacrifices of which we now have no 
conception — during that period of the great struggle 
which must ensue, we hope and confidently believe 
that the great principles which you have so clearly 
and emphatically declared will triumph, that democ- 
racy must prevail, it cannot, it dare not be defeated. 
Humanity and civilization are the living protest 
against it. 

We are of the opinion that the man power and the 
woman power — the wealth, the power and the con- 
science of those who are standing behind you, cannot 
help but win this wonderful victory which shall for- 
ever put an end to Prussianism or militarism as ex- 
pressed by the Imperial Government of Germany. 

During that time it will be the mission of this Com- 
mittee to see to it that the standards of life shall not 
go down, at least not go down except as a last resort, 
as a last sacrifice essential to the safety and for the 
defense of our republic and for the ideals for which 
it stands. This committee comes from many different 
parts of the country. As you know, sir, there is no 
compensation for them nor are their expenses borne. 
They serve voluntarily to do this effective work. They 
have come here, about two-thirds of the committee; 
besides them there are others, men engaged in great 

[84] 



A PLEDGE OF SERVICE 

affairs, who have telegraphed to me that it is physically 
impossible for them to come. I anticipated their 
wishes in asking that they might have the privilege 
of calling upon you, sir, and to pay their respects to 
you, in which I join, and you courteously advised me 
that the privilege would be accorded. We are here 
to pay our respects to you, Mr. President, and to ex- 
press to you our great hope for your continued good 
health, for your mental and physical power to be re- 
tained to the last hour of your life, and may that last 
hour be long, long deferred. 



[85] 



LABOR AND NATIONAL UNITY 

It has been the poor, the workers, the hewers of wood 
and the drawers of water, upon whose shoulders has been 
placed the burden to struggle upward and onward. 

Before the Fifty-fourth Annual Convention, New York 
State Federation of Labor, Jamestown, N. Y., August 31st, 
1917. 

FT is gratifying to know of the magnificent work 
■*■ and growth and the achievements of the New 
York State Federation of Labor and the organized 
labor movement of our state and of our country. 
There are many who live in the fond hope that regard- 
less of inactivity, somehow or other, improvement will 
come to the lot and the condition of the toilers of our 
country. It is good to have optimism. It is good 
to look upon the brighter side of life ; but he who fails 
to understand, he who fails to take action to remedy 
existing wrongs and evils, fails in his first duty to him- 
self and to his fellows. And not only now, but for all 
time to come. 

Things do not happen for human betterment in the 
world of affairs except through the thought and the 
devotion and activity of the masses whom wrongs af- 
fect and who aspire for a better life. 

The fatalist, the optimist purely, who imagines that 
things happen anyway, reminds me of the story of the 
[86] 



LABOR AND NATIONAL UNITY 

hunter who had a companion who was a fatalist and 
believed that all things would happen regardless of 
any particular activity. 

The hunter and his friend went out one day into 
the fields, and after awhile a great flock of wild ducks 
flew along the horizon. The hunter leveled his field- 
piece and shot ; when lo and behold, a duck fell to the 
ground very nearly before the feet of the hunter and 
his friend. 

The hunter, turning to his friend, said: "You 
fatalist, I ask you about this duck lying dead at my 
feet; you shot him." 

And the answer came back : "Yes, my good friend, 
it is true that it is lying dead at your feet, but it 
wasn't a question of the shot, the fall killed the poor 
duck." 

The whole history of the world is one of struggle, 
but the written history up to our time fails to record 
these sacrifices which have been made by the toiling 
masses that they may be spared some of the burdens of 
life. The men of means and of title have always been 
free in every state or country in which they have lived. 
They have enjoyed privileges and emoluments as well 
as riches and titles. It has been the poor, the workers, 
the hewers of wood and the drawers of water upon 
whose shoulders has been placed the burden to strug- 
gle upward and onward. And through all life, in all 
ages, it has devolved upon the great masses of the 
people to contend for a larger and better concept of 
the rights to which the toilers are entitled. 

The whole history of the world is marked by the 
sacrifices which have been made. Every movement 

[87] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

and every sacrifice which have been made have resulted 
in some distinct improvement in the condition of the 
toilers, until in our day the world is stirred by the con- 
cept as well as the slogan that the world must be made 
safe for democracy, for the people of the whole world. 

I am proud to have been permitted to be associated 
with this wonderful movement of labor of America, 
for it is my judgment, as the result of long investiga- 
tion and study, as well as travel and participation in 
movements, that there is no movement organized in all 
the world that is comparable with the American trade 
union movement as represented by the American Fed- 
eration of Labor. We have indulged ourselves in less 
fantasy, we have indulged ourselves in fewer declara- 
tions, but we have consecrated our movement to 
tangible achievements, which shall bring and have 
brought light into the lives and the homes and the 
work of the toilers of America. 

It has been our aim constantly to press home upon 
the political affairs of our country and the industrial 
affairs of our every-day lives, a larger participation of 
Labor in all the agencies of government as well as of 
industry. So we find now that Labor has a larger 
representation and a bigger voice in the determination 
of the affairs of industry and of our country. 

I would not have any man or woman either under- 
stand or infer from what I have said that we — you and 
I — are satisfied with existing conditions. All our ac- 
tivities are in themselves the expression of dissatis- 
faction with evils and wrongs which have too long 
existed and are a demand for the rights to which the 
toilers are entitled. 

[88] 



LABOR AND NATIONAL UNITY 

Your meeting and the meeting of the thousands of 
unions and central bodies, and the conventions of the 
American Federation of Labor, are in almost per- 
petual session to devise the ways and means by which 
we can still further press upon the political, the indus- 
trial, the commercial and intellectual agencies of our 
country, in order that the toilers shall at last come 
into their own. 

But he who realizes the wrongs and the evils still ex- 
isting and aims to secure improvements in the condi- 
tion of the toilers, if unwilling to acknowledge that 
which has been accomplished, will to that same extent 
minimize and neutralize the things that he would like 
to do for the betterment of the people and libel the 
movement and himself included. 

Now more than ever is it necessary for the work- 
ing people to organize more thoroughly into their 
union, now more than ever it is essential for the work- 
ers themselves to be more completely united for the 
common welfare of the toilers and to make common 
cause with every man, with every group of men, with 
our own country and with all other countries that have 
the common concept of liberty and freedom and uni- 
versal democracy. 

We in the United States of America felt that the 
time had passed when any one could think, much less 
see, a conflict between the peoples of the nations of 
Europe such as we have seen since August, 19 14. By 
direction of the American Federation of Labor, of 
which you are an integral and so important a part, 
I was directed to proceed to Paris, France, in the year 
1909, and there participate in a conference of Labor 

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AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

of all countries, to carry your mandate to them. Find- 
ing there the representative men of the toilers of each 
country heartened me, encouraged me in the hope 
that at last the dream of the poet and philosopher was 
about to be consummated and the brotherhood of man 
of the whole world realized. 

As a part of that international labor conference, a 
mass meeting was held at which the representative of 
each of the labor movements of the countries partici- 
pating in the congress, spoke for the toilers of his 
country. I have never yet seen a mass gathering more 
truly sincere, enthusiastic and devoted to a particular 
cause than that great meeting. And with others I 
pledged myself and held myself sponsor for the funda- 
mental thought and high ideal that America's workers 
would stand true to the principle of international peace 
and for the abolition of international wars. 

I found myself so thoroughly in accord with the 
universal peace sentiment that perhaps you can imagine 
how my mind and heart and soul were racked to their 
very centers when this bloody war was thrust upon the 
people. 

It was some time before I could realize really what 
had occurred. Men in all of these countries were 
working for a common uplift; scientists were burn- 
ing the midnight oil that they might find some relief 
for the slightest ill that might occur to the most in- 
significant of the peoples of the world ; every one was 
trying his level best to make of this life a better life 
when, out of the clear sky, this war broke, and at the 
call of a great autocrat, the people who had been try- 
ing to do so much for themselves and for the people 

[90] 



LABOR AND NATIONAL UNITY 

of the world, were ordered to clutch at the very hearts 
and the throats of their fellow-men. The destruction 
of human life and property going on is unparalleled 
in the history of the world and staggering to the con- 
science of decent men and women. 

And so we found the world startled and shocked at 
the beginning of this terrific war ; we found the peoples 
of the other countries responding also to the call to 
the colors. The mightiest war of all the world was 
in full swing. We in America, regardless of how our 
sympathies may have swayed our judgment, main- 
tained a strict and an impartial neutrality. 

May I say here, for a moment, something upon the 
subject of neutrality? I desire to mention it simply 
because there are some people who have in their minds 
the thought that, after all, our Government was not 
neutral. I refer to the charge which has been made 
that the United States and her people furnished some 
of the countries at war with arms and ammunition 
and foods, etc., and that these acts were acts in con- 
flict with the principles of neutrality. Let me say 
this, that the Government of the United States up to 
the time of our entrance into the war did not side 
with any of the contending countries. The people of 
the United States were engaged in the manufacture 
and production of certain articles, which, under the 
laws of the country and under the laws of the world, 
were perfectly lawful productions. They had the right 
to sell them to any one who came to the United States 
and desired to buy. 

The American producer and manufacturer sold to 
those who wanted to buy a lawful product. Now, if 

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AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

one or two of the countries could not buy these 
products and could not take them to their own homes, 
that was not the fault of the United States. And let 
me say in connection with this, that no country now 
contending in the war repeats^ that charge against 
the United States or attempts now to argue that the 
United States was unneutral because it sold its products 
to those who wanted to buy. 

But in addition, during the Spanish- American War 
the manufacturers of arms and munitions in Ger- 
many sold these products to Spain, as well as to the 
United States. During the Boer War — a war in which 
my sympathies went with the Boers — Germany as well 
as other countries sold munitions to the Boers, as well 
as they did to England. During our Civil War the 
countries of Europe furnished munitions and supplies 
to the Southern Confederacy, as well as to the Federal 
Government. 

No one, no nation ever before attempted to cast a 
reflection upon any other nation because of the sale 
of munitions and supplies to any one of the other 
countries. 

But to come to the more vital subject; we are now 
engaged in war. We have joined the other countries 
in fighting for democracy and freedom, the world over 
— not alone for the United States, not for England and 
France and Russia and poor outraged Belgium, but for 
the people of Germany and Austria-Hungary as well. 

Is it not true that no man in public life was ever 
more assailed and criticised and denounced than was 
the President of the United States because he had kept 
us out of this great war for so long a time; urged on, 

[92] 



LABOR AND NATIONAL UNITY 

egged on, ridiculed in every form because he had kept 
us out of the war and because he declared that some- 
times a people may be too proud to fight? 

He believed at that time that there was some honor 
and some conscience in the ruling family of Germany. 
When our people, engaged in legitimate travel, were 
by the hundreds sent to untimely death, when our prop- 
erty was destroyed — property might be made good 
in some fashion, but for life destroyed there is no 
compensation — the President declared that there must 
be some pledge given to safeguard the lives of Ameri- 
can men and women and children, and the pledge was 
given that it would not be repeated. 

Then came the warning of ruthless destruction of 
all life and property of any people who might come 
within a zone where they had a perfect, lawful right 
to go. That promise and pledge made by the Imperial 
German Government, like that treaty that held Bel- 
gium sacred from invasion, was regarded as a mere 
scrap of paper and torn into shreds, trodden under 
foot, and the wholesale destruction and murder 
went on. 

Pacifist as I had been from my boyhood until 
this war broke out, I am free to say to you 
this, that I could not bind myself to the altered 
situation in the world's affairs; that the gaunt- 
let had been thrown down to democracy and that un- 
less the challenge was accepted autocracy would run 
rough-shod over the peoples of the whole world; and 
from pacifist came my evolution into a fighting man. 
I hold that in this great time there can be no just 
foundation for pacifism until militarism is crushed. 

[93] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

I could wish that the war would come to an end, that 
human life be conserved and suffering saved, but a 
peace at this time without any one thing being deter- 
mined finally and absolutely to guarantee that such a 
ruthless war cannot again be brought as a curse upon 
the people of the world, is both undesirable and im- 
possible. 

When the people of the Colonies of America took 
up arms for the establishment of this new nation, the 
Republic of the United States, there could be no end- 
ing of that war until either the people of those colonies 
were subjugated or freed to enjoy the privileges and 
the advantages of self-government. It was so de- 
termined, and we won. 

During the Civil War, the four years' struggle be- 
tween the North and the South for the abolition of 
human slavery and the maintenance of the Union, there 
could be no compromise, there could be no peace until 
the issue was settled. 

I saw a few days ago a statement published in a so- 
called pacifist paper, which said, "Why not at this 
time emulate the good example of Gen. Grant, who 
said, 'Let us have peace' ?" But the writer was either 
ignorant of the facts or purposely misrepresented Gen. 
Grant and the incident to suit a purpose which is un- 
justified. 

When Gen. Grant uttered that immortal slogan, "Let 
us have peace," Gen. Lee had surrendered to Gen. 
Grant more than six months before and peace had been 
established; Gen. Grant had been nominated for the 
Presidency, and as his slogan for the purpose of help- 
ing the people of the South rehabilitate themselves, he 

[94] 



LABOR AND NATIONAL UNITY 

said to the people of the North and of the South, "Let 
us have peace." 

It is my judgment that we want to fight for the 
liberation and the democracy of the people of Germany 
and Austria and Hungary, as well as for the people 
of the United States, so that after militarism and im- 
perialism and autocracy are crushed, we can say with 
Grant, "Let us have peace." 

We are engaged in war. We are in it ! You and I 
— members of organized labor — we sometimes enter 
into contests in which every one is not fully satisfied 
that it is the best thing to do. In our unions we have 
rules and laws, among which we prescribe that a strike 
can only be undertaken when two-thirds of the mem- 
bership vote in favor of the strike. Some unions have 
the regulation that it shall be a majority, others three- 
fourths. 
When I worked at the bench, I was in a number of 
strikes. There was one strike in the shop in which I 
was working, and my judgment was that it was an in- 
opportune time for the men in that shop to strike. I 
was firmly convinced that they were justified in strik- 
ing, but I knew as well as I know anything that has 
not yet occurred, that we would be defeated if we in- 
augurated the strike. 

I was the only man in that shop who had that view. 
I did not vote against the strike. I expressed my views 
to the boys, but they did not hold my view and they 
decided that we should strike. Do you think for a 
moment that I would remain in that shop and work 
while they went on strike? 

Supposing in any of our unions a question, a wage 
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AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

reduction or a demand for a wage increase came up 
and the question of striking was adopted by two-thirds 
of the men, or three-fourths of them — do you think 
for a moment that the one-third or the one-fourth of 
them have the right to say that the three- fourths are 
wrong and that they are going to continue to work 
and play the part of the scab and the strike-breaker? 
I hold that the same rule applies to the republic in 
which we live. I suppose that there are not many, in 
our time, who will hold that our country can be gov- 
erned without laws of some kind. 

We have a Constitution — the Constitution of 
the United States. We are living under the Declara- 
tion of Independence. The laws and the Constitution 
of the United States provide that the people of the 
United States through the Representatives and Sen- 
ators in Congress assembled shall have the power to 
-declare and make war. In the Senate of the United 
States, in the House of Representatives of the United 
States, there were not more than two or three who 
voted against the Government and the people of the 
United States making war upon the Imperial Govern- 
ment of Germany. In other words, the representa- 
tives of the people of this Republic, in Congress as- 
sembled, under the authority of the Constitution of 
the United States, made that declaration of war. 

Any man living in our country who is unwilling to 
stand behind that declaration is unworthy to enjoy the 
guarantees of peace. I can not carry a gun with the 
accouterments of war, I can not fight in the trenches ; 
if I attempted it, after a few days or a week or two, 
instead of being a help, I would be a burden. And 

[96] 



LABOR AND NATIONAL UNITY 

consequently it is of no use for me to attempt in 
braggadocio or any other mood to volunteer my serv- 
ice to enter into the military or the naval force of our 
Government. But I have done something. There is 
a need in America and in all wars, for organizers ; and 
some people have flattered me by saying that I am 
somewhat of an organizer. There is a need for ad- 
ministrators, and some have said that I am not such a 
bad administrator of affairs. There is need of advice 
and judgment, and my friends have flattered me by 
saying that I am not much of a fool. So, feeling the 
obligation to give service, I am giving the service, the 
best that is in me, for the cause in which the labor 
movement and our country are engaged. 

A little bit of an incident, perhaps, to you, but a 
great big one to me, occurred a few days ago when I 
received from my grandson, nineteen years of age, 
a letter telling me that three months ago he had volun- 
tarily enlisted in the service of our country in the 
Aviation Corps at San Antonio, Texas. His telling me 
about his voluntary action made me grow about six 
feet taller than I am. 

I do know this, that I said to my family group that 
any one of them who would not serve the United States 
in this war is not of my blood and I repudiate him. I 
am in this war, with the people, behind the President 
and the Government of the United States. At the 
same time, and during the war, I propose to see to it, 
as best I can, that the standards of the American 
workers shall not be lowered; on the contrary, that 
every opportunity shall be given for the working men 
and women in our country; that in all the industrial 

[97] 



y 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

and commercial pursuits and activities of our Govern- 
ment where they contribute toward bringing profit, 
the toilers shall share in the largest proportion of that 
profit. 

At a conference held in Washington in the Execu- 
tive Council meeting room of our beautiful structure, 
the officers of nearly all the international unions as- 
sembled there and adopted a declaration on March 
1 2th, nearly a month before the entrance of our 
country into the war, insisting upon the maintenance 
and the improvement of the standards of life of the 
American working people. 

Some time later with the four labor representatives 
sent from Great Britain to the United States to con- 
fer with the labor men of America, the Committee on 
Labor was received by the President. I was deputized 
to make a few remarks, which I undertook to do as 
best I could. The President's response was to the ef- 
fect that the working people engaged in industry and 
commerce in the United States during this war shall 
have their rights guaranteed and their standards main- 
tained. 

When the Pennsylvania Legislature undertook to 
repeal the full crew law, the President wrote a letter 
to Governor Brumbaugh urging him to veto that prop- 
osition as against the interests of Labor, which interests 
should be maintained at all hazards. I may say that 
I have tried to do something that would be helpful 
upon that subject. I think you will be pleased to hear 
that there have been agreements made between the 
Secretary of War, Mr. Baker, and myself, as Presi- 
dent of the American Federation of Labor, the terms 

[98] 



LABOR AND NATIONAL UNITY 

of which provide that in the construction of canton- 
ments and all appurtenances to them, the union scale 
of wages and the hours and conditions of employment 
of the union in the vicinity shall prevail as standards. 
A committee was created consisting of three men, 
a representative of the army, a representative of the 
public, and a representative of Labor, appointed by me. 
The man I appointed was John R. Alpine, third Vice- 
President of the American Federation of Labor. 

The Secretary of War, by further agreement with 
me, extended the terms to the aviation plants, to the 
aviation construction cantonments, and then the Secre- 
tary of the Navy accepted that same agreement for 
all construction on land coming under the jurisdiction 
of the Navy Department. 

This morning's Jamestown papers contain the state- 
ment of the creation of similar boards under similar 
conditions for the Emergency Fleet Corporation and 
for the Shipping Board. An agreement was consum- 
mated between the Seamen's Union and the vessel own- 
ers for improved conditions for the seamen and to 
stop any agitation for the repeal of the Seamen's Act, 
making it secure now for all time. 

Secretary Baker, for the War Department, cancelled 
contracts for army clothing to the extent of nearly 
half a million dollars a few days ago, because this 
clothing was manufactured in the homes of the work- 
ers, and he wanted to abolish the sweat-shop system. 

I freely admit that there are still many wrongs pre- 
vailing, that many evils still exist in the trades and 
many misconceptions and many injustices are being 
inflicted, but we have just declared war. We are 

[99] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

really not in it yet, and what other governments have 
taken three and four years to accomplish, cannot be 
accomplished with a turn of the hand. It takes time. 
There is a disposition among the officers of the Govern- 
ment of the United States to deal fairly with labor. 

I am not going to defend the I. W. W.'s, those who 
are irresponsible to each other, irresponsible toward 
Labor and irresponsible toward the Government of 
the Republic of the United States, but I do hold that 
every man living in our country, no matter what his 
opinions may be, no matter what is the charge that 
may be made against him, is entitled to the protection 
of the laws of our country. 

I do not think that there are many men who have 
been more openly hostile to this gang of industrial free- 
booters than I have. Well, if men calling themselves 
labor men undertake by their irresponsible and irra- 
tional action to undermine all that we have tried to 
build up for years, if they then declare that they do not 
hold themselves responsible to any authority and give 
no accounting of their conduct to anybody, if there 
be any other title than that which I have just ger- 
minated in my mind and called them, I do not know it. 

The man who is charged with the gravest crime 
known to the human mind is given the protection of 
a trial, confronted by a jury of his peers. He has 
his day in court. Even these industrial free-booters 
are entitled to that. 

It was my pleasure last week to have had the honor 
of a long conference with the President, and the mat- 
ter was brought to his attention of the attempt of some 
employers of labor not only to take advantage of this 

[100] 



LABOR AND NATIONAL UNITY 

situation brought about by these so-called I. W. W.'s, 
but also with their attorneys and corporations, to make 
common war upon all organized labor, — trade unions, 
bona fide, constructive, conservative as they all are. I 
am not violating the President's confidence, nor would 
I violate the confidence of the Council of National 
Defense, but I think I am justified in telling you that 
as a result of those incidents, the Council of National 
Defense adopted and the President approved, the 
creation of a commission to make an investigation of 
the situation in the West and Northwest and to report 
to the Council and to the President. Upon that com- 
mission Labor will undoubtedly have one or more 
representatives. 

All along, in the activities in connection with pro- 
duction, transportation, or war contracts there is the 
disposition to deal fairly and honorably with Labor 
and to see that representatives of Labor are on the 
various boards and agencies. 

Now, my friends, that is what we are trying to do. 
This one thing I know, we are in the war and we can- 
not get out of it. We dare not get out of it until 
America and the world are safe, so that all the peoples 
of the world may each live out their own lives, may 
each of them evolve and develop as best they can to 
attain their highest ideals. 

As Lincoln said in his time, that "America cannot 
long remain half slave and half free," so the President 
of the United States in his great message to Congress 
on April 2, sounded the keynote for the whole world. 
It is by the wisdom of his great character, by his vi- 
sion that the world shall be free, and it is by the com- 

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AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

mon consent of the democratic peoples of all the world 
that he is the standard-bearer and leader of the war 
of our time. 

With the aid of the Central Federated Union of 
New York, with the organizations of New York State, 
Pennsylvania, New Jersey and a few other places, we 
have organized a movement of trade unionists and men 
who have declared their unalterable fealty to the 
American trade union movement as represented by the 
American Federation of Labor, accepting these two 
standards, separately and combined. First, there shall 
be solidarity in the American labor movement; the 
fight against secession and duality in the labor move- 
ment must be crushed out; and second, with the 
American trade union movement we shall undertake a 
campaign for the more thorough organization and the 
more thorough Americanization of the working people 
of our country. Standing loyally by our Republic that 
movement has gone on and on, and, as you have heard 
read, an invitation has been extended to the trade 
union central bodies and state federations to send 
representatives to a national conference to be held at 
Minneapolis, Minn., September 5th, 6th and 7th. It 
is my earnest hope, as I am convinced it will be to the 
advantage of the labor movement of the State of New 
York and of our country itself, that the men of labor 
shall be at Minneapolis on September 5th. 

In some of the countries, the liberties of many of the 
people have been taken away from them during this 
war. In the United States thus far no such attempt 
has been made, and if I read the signs of the times 
correctly, and I think I do, if the men of labor of our 

[102] 



LABOR AND NATIONAL UNITY 

country will be true to themselves and true to their 
unions and true to the Republic of the United States 
and the cause in which we are all engaged, there will 
be no attempt made to take away any of our liberties. 
But on the contrary, that for which we have striven 
so long, that for which we have given so many hours 
and years of our lives, will be maintained forever, ex- 
cept as improvements may come. It is all depending 
upon us. The course is open for us. We have no 
choice. I was about to say we must make our choice, 
— there is no choice. There is only one way, and that 
is the straight way ; not only the straight way to labor 
patriotism, but to group patriotism, to human patri- 
otism and to the patriotism and loyalty to the cause 
of Labor and the cause of our Republic the cause of 
justice, of freedom and of democracy. 



[103] 



AMERICA'S FIGHT FOR THE PRESERVA- 
TION OF DEMOCRACY 

The United States has declared that she can not live in 
safety when there is stalking over the earth this thunderous 
machine of murder. The United States authoritatively has 
declared that peace is desirable and should be brought about, 
but that peace is impossible so long as life and liberty are 
challenged and menaced. 

In accepting the presidency of the American Alliance for 
Labor and Democracy upon its organization as a national 
body at Minneapolis, Minn., September yth, 19 if. 

There is a tide in the affairs of men 

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to Fortune; 

Omitted, all the voyage of their life 

Is bound in shallows and in miseries; 

On such a full sea are we now afloat '; 

And we must take the current when it serves, 

Or lose our ventures. 

npHE application of the present situation of the 
■*- peoples of the democratic countries of the world 
was never better portrayed than in that admonition to 
one of Shakespeare's characters. Now is the time 
that tries men's souls equally as much as when that 
slogan was put forth. 

I am not given to the course of condemnation of 
those who differ from me and even those who differ 
from our movement, but is this great Republic of ours 
worth preserving? Is the history of the struggles of 
the colonists of America of no importance? Is the 

[104] 



AMERICA'S FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY 

Declaration of Independence meaningless? Are the 
Constitutional provisions and guarantees without un- 
derstanding or pertinence? Was the Revolution 
fought in vain ? Was the Civil War a fruitless strug- 
gle and sacrifice? Was the war between the United 
States and Spain for the independence of Cuba worth- 
less and meaningless ? 

A moment's thought will decide that there never was 
in all the world a great country that was so altruistic 
in purpose and idealistic in its practices as is the Re- 
public of the United States of America. With think- 
ing men and women I count myself honored as one of 
the critics of the shortcomings of our Government and 
our country. I am not given to hide or to gloss over 
the wrongs which are committed against our people. 

Under any and all circumstances, as far as the light 
and the ability have been given me, I have protested 
against a wrong committed against the meanest and 
humblest of our people in the United States and have 
tried so far as it was within my power to be helpful so 
that the wrong should be righted and the right conceded 
and guaranteed. Because I realize that we in the 
United States have not yet reached the acme of per- 
fection industrially, politically, judicially or socially, 
is that a reason why I should lack in appreciation of 
that which has been done and that which has been ac- 
complished ? 

Take country by country, those at war against each 
other, and see where liberty and conscience and free- 
dom prevail. Beyond question it will be admitted by 
those who are fair enough to see the right and to dare 
to utter the right, that the democracies of the world 

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AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

are now engaged in one great titanic struggle so that 
they may with one fell stroke free the world from 
autocracy, imperialism and militarism. 

I have counted myself happy in the companionship 
of the men and the women who called themselves 
pacifists. As a trade unionist, I have been in happy 
accord with our movement for international peace. 

At a great gathering in Faneuil Hall, Boston, some 
years ago, I gave utterance to my soul's conviction 
that the time had come when great international wars 
had been put to an end. I expressed the opinion that 
in the last analysis, if those who are the profit-mongers 
by war undertook to create a war, the working people 
of the countries of the world would stop work simul- 
taneously, if necessary, in order to prevent interna- 
tional war. 

Incidentally, I may relate this: At one of the 
peace conferences James Bryce, Ambassador from 
Great Britain to the Government of the United States, 
after having heard all the other addresses upon peace, 
discussed the subject and then made this pithy remark : 
"I have tried to study history aright and I have been 
very much impressed with what has been said about 
peace to-night, but I have been able to discover only 
one war in the whole history of the world which was 
justified," and then turning to all the audience he said, 
"I prefer that each one of you would decide which war 
that was." 

I beg you to believe me that he did not convert me 
from my international pacifism. Until 19 14 I was in 
that fool's paradise. I doubt if there were many who 
were so thoroughly shocked to the innermost depths of 

[106] 



AMERICA'S FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY 

their being as I was with the breaking out of the 
European War. But it had come ! And as it went on, 
ruthlessly, we saw a terrific conflict in which the 
dominating spirit was that the people attacked must 
be subjugated to the will of the great autocrat of his 
time regardless of how our sympathies ran, and that 
men who had given the best years of their lives in the 
effort to find some means, some secret of science or of 
nature so that the slightest ill or pain of the most in- 
significant of the race might be assuaged, turned to 
purposes of destruction. At the call of this autocrat, 
His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Germany, men 
were set at attack and we found that these very men 
were clutching at each other's throats and seeking 
each other's destruction. 

I asked myself, as I would ask those other men who 
had not yet awakened from their delusion, is it not 
time to recognize your mistake when your country and 
your home are being ravaged and overridden? Is it 
not time to recognize that, when your wife and your 
daughter are outraged? Is it not time to recognize 
that the red blood in a man demands that he shall safe- 
guard himself and his fellow man, or he ought to perish 
in the struggle? 

Now there are some people who have said that this 
question of the declaration of war should have gone to 
a referendum vote. I wonder, if a band of a dozen 
or more men would endeavor to surround the home in 
which you live and then demand your surrender of 
your property, and in the meantime, while you are 
considering the subject, discharge their revolvers, kill- 
ing your wife and your children — whether you would 

[107] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

call a meeting for the deliberation of the subject and a 
vote as to whether you should defend yourself. 

As one who has for nearly his whole life been an ad- 
vocate of the initiative and the referendum in legisla- 
tion as well as in the labor movement, I am free to 
say this — that if a situation occurred such as I have 
tried to outline to you, I would try to pull first before 
the other fellow got it on me. 

Regardless of what the philosophy of men may be, 
I think no reasonable man or woman now believes that 
we can progress very long or very successfully with- 
out some law, without some authority being vested 
somewhere. The President of the United States has 
no such power as is in the hands of the Emperor of 
Germany. He cannot declare war. The only author- 
ity to declare war is the Congress of the United States. 

Now, whether you like the Congress or you do not, 
for the sake of our consideration matters little. The 
fact is that the Congress of the United States is by 
common consent, by the law of our land, the Constitu- 
tion of our Republic, invested with sole authority to 
declare war and to make war. These Senators and 
Representatives were elected by the people of 
the United States and without regard to party 
affiliations, when the Congress of the United States 
was made officially acquainted with all the wrongs 
committed against our people, with .the murder of our 
people, by a practically unanimous vote the Congress 
declared that war should be waged against the Im- 
perial German Government. 

There is no other agency in the United States for 
declaring war against any other nation than the one 

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AMERICA'S FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY 

provided by the Constitution. I am free to say that 
there may be better and safer means by which that 
authority may be held within its proper limitations, 
but I do not know them. In any event, we 
are at war and that is the consideration with which 
we must deal. The Republic of the United States has 
cast her lot with the allied countries fighting against 
the greatest military machine ever erected in the his- 
tory of the world. 

To ask the Government of the United States now to 
state specifically the terms of peace is to play, con- 
sciously or unconsciously, into the hands of the enemy. 
At this time the military machine of Germany and 
Austria is upon soil foreign to them. The military 
machine is in Serbia, is in Belgium — outraged Bel- 
gium — and in gallant France. A peace at this time 
must necessarily be predicated in part at least upon 
Germany's conquest of these countries and territories. 

I may say, in passing, that this afternoon I walked 
through the corridor of the hotel where I am stopping 
and saw a newspaper in the hands of a gentleman — 
saw at a glance a flaring headline stating that "Germans 
are retreating from Flanders," and the thought flashed 
through my mind, "Yes, that is the beginning of the 
end." 

Back from Flanders, back from Serbia, back from 
France; and then perhaps we may determine the con- 
ditions of peace, but not until then. 

I am made ill when I see or hear of any one suffer- 
ing the slightest pain or anguish, and yet I hold that it 
is essential that the sacrifice must be made so that hu- 
manity shall never again be cursed by a war such as 

[109] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

the one which has been thrust upon us. May I say a 
word in regard to some labor men who are discon- 
tented or rather express themselves as if they were 
discontented with the condition in which we find our- 
selves in the United States by reason of our having 
been drawn into this war? They want to have the 
privilege of calling themselves conscientious objectors 
who are not participating in the fight. 

I know that there are some religious, conscientious 
objectors. They are opposed to war under all cir- 
cumstances. They are non-resisters and believe that 
that is the way out. That may be, somewhere in Tim- 
buctoo, but not in Germany or France or Belgium or 
Serbia or the United States. But ask the men or 
women belonging to a labor organization what would 
be their attitude in the event of a conflict between their 
fellow workers on the one hand and the employers on 
the other? 

And let me say this, that I hold that a man who is 
a traitor to his country is upon a par with the scab 
to his trade. I have a great appreciation and desire 
to see that the rights of the minority are protected. I 
believe that men have the right to express their dis- 
sent, but the expression of dissent is one thing and the 
organizing of a movement to destroy the will of the 
majority — that is not right and cannot be tolerated! 

Realizing what was coming, I had firmly made up 
my mind that no matter what we did or left undone, 
the Republic of the United States would be dragged 
into this war by the Imperial German Government, 
and for good and sufficient reasons. Perhaps it might 
not be amiss if I just mention one or two. 

[110] 



AMERICA'S FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY 

We have all declared that we are not engaged in this 
venture for profit, for aggrandizement. We are en- 
gaged in this war to make life and peace and freedom 
sure. As soon as the German armies were halted in 
France it upset the Kaiser's plans and meant his final 
undoing. As soon as that great Juggernaut had been 
stopped in its onward progress, that (as some labor 
men say) threw a monkey wrench in the machinery. 
From that time, without the ability to conquer, these 
statesmen and strategists of Germany, without ques- 
tion, undertook to entangle us or drag us into this war 
for some reason. One reason, that they supposed that 
we were a democracy and as a consequence we could 
not produce an efficient fighting machine in time to be 
of any injury to her. 

And secondly, if we are in the war, the American 
Republic would be entitled to representatives around 
the table to determine conditions of peace ; and that in- 
asmuch as the people of our Republic and the Republic 
itself are altruistic and generous and kind, we would 
not want anything for ourselves in the form of 
annexation, but as a matter of fact, by reason of that 
as well as the reason of so many of our people being 
Teutonic by birth or extraction, and some by sympathy, 
the needs of the times would be that the United States' 
representatives would, in part at least, be friends of 
Germany in her great distress. 

But whether my surmise was right or wrong, I was 
perfectly satisfied that that would come. And now, a 
month or more before the United States declared war, 
I counseled with the Executive Council of the Ameri- 
can Federation of Labor as to the advisability of call- 

[111] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

ing a national conference for the purpose of discussing 
with the responsible officers of the labor movement 
of America, what the attitude of Labor, organized 
labor, should be — whether in peace, should we be 
vouchsafed peace, or in the event of war, should war 
be thrust upon us. 

The conference was held, and upon March 12, 1917, 
a declaration given to the world as to the attitude of 
Labor either in peace or in war. That declaration was 
made nearly one month before war was declared. I 
am willing that the thoughtful men and women of our 
country and time should read that document. It will 
bear the test of investigation and criticism. The dec- 
laration was made by unanimous vote and upon the 
basis of that declaration the Council of National De- 
fense in its Committee on Labor adopted a resolu- 
tion to maintain the industrial standards of the work- 
ing people of the United States during the war. 

Perhaps through mistake, or from whatever reason 
or motive, the press of the country misinterpreted that 
declaration to mean that I had declared, in the name 
of the working people of the United States, that there 
would be no strikes during the war, and it was neces- 
sary for the Council of National Defense to adopt an- 
other declaration in the form of an amplification setting 
at rest any charge or insinuation that the Council had 
declared for the lowering of standards. But that 
did not stop the wagging of the vicious tongues. There 
is scarcely any one of those so-called organized pac- 
ifists against our movement and our country who 
would not repeat and emphasize the declaration that I 
had bound the working people of the country hand and 

[112] 



AMERICA'S FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY 

foot to the capitalist class and to the Government of 
the country. No matter what explanations may be 
made, no matter how thoroughly their statements can 
be refuted, they repeat them, if possible, with greater 
emphasis. 

The truth is, that as the result of the efforts made 
by the American Federation of Labor before war was 
declared the standards of American labor have been 
guaranteed to be maintained, and the rights to which 
the toilers and the masses of our people are rightly en- 
titled will be guaranteed by the Government of our 
country. 

In the midst of war there can be no discussion among 
those who have the guns trained upon them. As a re- 
sult of the effort put forth by the organized labor move- 
ment, not only the declaration to which I have just re- 
ferred and its amplification were made, but more than 
a month later the same agreement was accepted by the 
Secretary of War, Mr. Baker, a man of brilliant mind 
and of fine heart and type of character, and the Presi- 
dent of the American Federation of Labor, by which 
the construction of cantonments all through the country 
should be carried on a basis of the union scale of 
wages, hours and conditions of labor. 

The agreement was extended by the Secretary of 
War to cover all those plants and those establishments 
in which aeroplanes are constructed. And a few days 
after, the same agreement was accepted by the Secre- 
tary of the Navy, Mr. Daniels, to apply to all land 
construction work coming under the jurisdiction of 
the navy. The Shipping Board and the Emergency 
Fleet Corporation accepted the terms in more ampli- 

[113] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

fied form. These agreements provide for the es- 
tablishment of boards which shall be final boards of 
appeal, not only to maintain the standards, but to im- 
prove the standards as time and necessity may show. 
And upon the cantonment adjustment board is a repre- 
sentative of the War Department and a representative 
of the public, who, by the way, is no other person than 
that welfare worker, Walter Lippmann, and a repre- 
sentative of labor, appointed by the President of the 
American Federation of Labor. The President of 
the American Federation of Labor appointed John R. 
Alpine, the President of the Plumbers' and Steamfit- 
ters' Association and Vice-President of the American 
Federation of Labor. These boards are being ex- 
tended as representative of the type of men that I have 
mentioned and as they would represent the particular 
industries. 

And this is just the beginning. We are only in the 
initial stages of the war. If we can but maintain unity 
of spirit and solidarity of action, depend upon it that 
the great benefits which will accrue to the democracy 
of America and the democracy of the world cannot 
and will not be taken from us when this cruel war is 
over. 

The fact of the matter is, men and women, in regard 
to that movement inaugurated to obstruct the Govern- 
ment in this great enterprise, the movement to play 
into the hands, consciously or unconsciously, I don't 
know which, of the enemy of our country, was to a 
very large degree a continuation of the policy directed 
against the American trade union movement. 

The American Federation of Labor had secured the 
[114] 



AMERICA'S FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY 

conditions and agreements, part of which I have called 
to your attention. Instead of recognizing these 
achievements in the interests of the workers and the 
masses of our people, it was purposely and maliciously 
misinterpreted to be a surrender to the Government 
and a surrender to the employing class of the United 
States. 

For more than twenty-five years there has gone on 
in the United States a movement to destroy the Ameri- 
can Federation of Labor, to organize dual bodies, to 
encourage secession, to discredit any achievement of 
the American labor movement, to throw odium and 
cast reflection upon the men and the women who dared 
to defend the fundamental principles and the high 
ideals of the American labor movement, to discredit 
them with their fellow-workers. Here was the op- 
portunity sought. They launched their attack upon 
the American Federation of Labor and over its head 
upon the Government. 

Well, I would rather that they would have had the 
opportunity of running themselves into seed than be 
dismembered by any other means. I was as confident 
as I now am that had that conference of the so-called 
People's Council been held in the city of Minneapolis 
and completed its work and we had followed it, as I 
took opportunity to say a few days ago at Jamestown, 
N. Y., when addressing the New York State Federa- 
tion of Labor, we would have matched brains with 
brains, heart with heart, service with disservice, and 
loyalty against disloyalty and shown the world the 
stuff of which we are made. 

I should also say, in passing, that it was because they 
[115] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

had determined t'o have their meeting in Minneapolis 
that it appeared to my mind, and I prevailed upon my 
associates, that the psychological place for us to meet 
was in Minneapolis and not any other city in the 
country. 

We are at war. Regardless of from which 
country we may have come or from which country our 
ancestors may have come, we are all here in this great 
melting pot of America. There is none of us who is 
going back to the old country to stay there. Our 
children are here. All our hope for the future is here. 
Our sacred dead are here. The people of these United 
States are confronted with the great problem of self- 
government — self-government, not a government 
which can be overturned in the night and created anew 
in the morning. We do not, and cannot, have progres- 
sive, humanitarian, liberty-protecting government 
when government can be overturned in the twinkling 
of an eye or the turning of a hand. We want a gov- 
ernment flexible, capable of improvement as our con- 
science and our intelligence quicken, as our under- 
standing broadens and our hearts are touched with 
humanitarian impulses, with the understanding and 
the desire to do the right, to help bear our brothers' 
burdens, to recognize that the meanest among us is 
entitled to the consideration and the protection of the 
strong, to do all that man can do for his fellows, to 
be willing to bear the burden and the responsibilities 
which are entailed in the doing of the right. 

May I take your time in reading a few stanzas of 
the poem by John Neihardt, called "The Battle Cry" ? 

[116] 



AMERICA'S FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY 

I can imagine the soldiers fighting against the German 
Government expressing it. 

More than half beaten, but fearless, 

Facing the storm and the night; 
Breathless and reeling, but tearless, 

Here in the lull of the fight, 
I who bow not but before Thee, 

God of the fighting clan, 
Lifting my fists I implore Thee, 

Give me the heart of a Man! 

What though I live with the winners, 

Or perish with those who fall, 
Only the cowards are sinners, 

Fighting the fight is all. 
Strong is my foe — he advances! 

Snapt is my blade, O Lord! 
See the proud banners and lances ! 

Oh, spare me this stub of a sword! 

Give me no pity, nor spare me, 

Calm not the wrath of my foe; 
See where he beckons to dare me! 

Bleeding, half beaten, — I go. 
Not for the glory of winning, 

But for the fear of the night; 
Shunning the battle is sinning — 

Oh, spare me the heart to fight! 

Red is the mist about me; 

Deep is the wound in my side; 
"Coward" thou criest to flout me, 

O terrible foe, thou hast lied ! 
Here with my battle before me, 

God of the fighting clan, 
Grant that the woman who bore me 

Suffered to suckle a man ! 

God grant that we may soon have this tranquilizing 
peace of which philosophers have dreamed and poets 
have sung, but peace, when it comes, must mean 

[117] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

the crushing of militarism for all time that the peoples 
of the world shall have the opportunity of living their 
own lives, of working out their own destinies. 

This is the message I bring to you which I hope, 
with that message of our great President of the United 
States and of our great temporary chairman of this 
morning, may aid, with your voices in glad acclaim, 
in bringing courage and hope and triumph to the 
cause of justice, freedom and democracy. 



[118] 



VICTORY DEMANDS UNITY 

Let us defer questions which can be deferred, questions 
that are likely to divide us in this war; let us remain 
united and fight it out no matter how long we fight — until 
America and America's allies shall prove victorious in the 
struggle. 

At a meeting under the auspices of the National Security 
League in Chicago, III., September 14th, 1917. 

/ T* HERE is such a thing as humility. There is such 
■*- a thing as patience. But when some bully under- 
takes to make an assault upon an innocent, peace-lov- 
ing man or woman, patience ceases to be a virtue and 
humility brings the brand of cowardice. That was the 
position in which the United States found itself as a 
nation by the repeated insults and assaults upon the 
character and upon the lives of our people, our men, 
our women and our innocent children. 

There is one thought in connection with the atrocious 
murder of our people in the case of our torpedoed 
boats. I ask you, my friends, to consider for a mo- 
ment the fact that the German Ambassador, Count 
von Bernstorff, a few days before the sailing of the 
Lusitania, had an advertisement in the newspapers of 
our country, warning the people of the United States 
against taking passage on the Lusitania, and advising 
them that there was danger in their taking passage on 
that vessel. The impudence of the whole transaction 

[119] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

caused a smile to spread over the countenances of the 
people of the United States. They thought it a hoax, 
a jest of a very, very somber character, and many of 
them took passage, and then within a few days the 
great ship went on her way, where she had a perfect 
right to go. 

Nearly 2,000 souls boarded that vessel before her 
departure. More than 150 American men and women 
and children were on that vessel when she sailed ; she 
was torpedoed without a moment's warning, and all 
of them sent to the waters and more than 1,500 human 
souls, of which more than 100 were American men 
and women and children, were sent to a watery grave. 

I ask you, my friends, to reverse the position for a 
moment. Suppose our Ambassador at Berlin, Mr. 
Gerard, had placed an advertisement in the newspapers 
of Germany advising the German people against taking 
passage on a steamer to go to any port that that 
steamer and her master had a right to go, and sup- 
pose further that some American U-boat had sent a 
torpedo into that merchant ship, and suppose that 
there had been 100 or more German men, women and 
children sent to an untimely grave, what do you think 
the treatment of Gerard would have been at the hands 
of the Kaiser? Do you think for a moment that there 
would have been any further parley with Gerard or 
the Government of the United States? Is it possible 
to imagine that with Germany's mental attitude Gerard 
would have been given his passports? Or is it not in 
keeping with the whole policy of "Kultur" that Gerard 
would have paid the penalty with his life? 

Surely, it would be untimely and inappropriate did 
[120] 



VICTORY DEMANDS UNITY 

I attempt or did any one attempt to interject any po- 
litical issue in this campaign of education and Ameri- 
canism in our country. But I ask you, my friends, 
whether it is not true that considerable of the opposi- 
tion to the re-election of Mr. Wilson to the Presidency 
was based on the accusation that he had too long 
kept us out of war? It is doubtful if there has been 
in history a more patient yet courageous man to meet 
a great emergency than Woodrow Wilson. It was for 
more than two years that President Wilson pursued 
his policy, basing his position upon the belief that there 
was some honor at the core, possibly to be discovered, 
of the German Imperial Government. He was mis- 
led into the belief that there was some honor in Ger- 
man diplomacy. He finally discovered that there 
comes a time, and that the time had come, when men 
would be too proud not to fight. 

To me it seemed that the entrance of our Republic 
into this conflict had been too long delayed, but as a 
loyal citizen I yielded to the judgment of the Com- 
mander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United 
States. I felt that the time was near at hand when 
the outrages would increase in such numbers and in 
such horror that in self-respect we would take ad- 
vantage of the current as it served or we would lose 
our ventures. 

We have entered into this struggle, and there can 
be no let-up from the time of our declaration of war 
until either Imperial Germany, with her militarism, 
shall surrender to the democracies of the world or the 
democracies shall crush Germany. 

We have heard the cries of a few of our people 
[121] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

echoing the wishes and the hope of defeated Ger- 
many to-day. I say defeated Germany, although she 
is not conquered by any means. But Germany is de- 
feated in the objects for which she entered into the 
war. We have heard an element here and there cry- 
ing out in the wilderness, for it finds no lodgment in 
the conscience or the hearts of red-blooded men, 
"Peace ! Peace !" Yes, I have seen it printed in news- 
papers, taken up by other pacifists, so-called, masking 
under the name of pacifists, but through ignorance or 
pro-Germar£sm, I do not know which, they have 
declared: "Why not now?" 

x^et us bear this fact in mind, that Germany and 
Austria are still fighting on land invaded by them. 
If we were to consent to peace to-day, without the sur- 
render of Kaiserism, in all history written in the 
future the Teutonic forces would be given the credit 
and the prestige of being the conqueror in this war. 
There can be no peace, not while there is a Teuton on 
the soil of glorious France. There can be no peace, 
and there must not be any peace, until the Teutons 
are driven back, back, from outraged Belgium. 

There cannot be any peace until the people of the 
world who love peace and liberty more than their own 
lives, are assured that never again shall it be pos- 
sible for Germany or Austria, or any other country 
for that matter, to make such a bloody war upon the 
freedom of the people. To me it is a subject of much 
obscurity how it is physically or mentally possible for 
any man who loves liberty, who is a native or a 
naturalized citizen of the United States, to make even 

[122] 



VICTORY DEMANDS UNITY 

the slightest manifestation of objection to the prose- 
cution of this war until the final end. 

I grieve that many of our poor boys may fall, and 
God grant that but few shall fall or be hurt, but I 
ask you, my friends, to think back whether there is any 
one among you who can trace some distant ancestor 
who fought in the Revolution to establish this Repub- 
lic and give to the world not only a new nation, but a 
new meaning of the rights of man. Is there any one 
among you who begrudges the sacrifice of any man 
who gave his life in order that that great privilege 
should be established? Who among our men, who 
among our women, regrets even the sacrifices that 
were made during our Civil War to abolish human 
slavery and to maintain the Union? Who among us 
regrets the sacrifices that were made to rescue Cuba 
from the domination of Spain and make her an inde- 
pendent republic? Why, all our hearts throb and our 
whole beings thrill when we can trace one who gave 
some contributory effort or sacrifice in order that these 
great achievements should lie as the successes of our 
country. 

That which we call freedom, that which we call 
liberty, are not tangible things. They are not handed 
to any people on a silver platter. They are principles, 
they are questions of the spirit, and people must have 
a consciousness that they not only have the term 
liberty and freedom, but they must have the power and 
the right to exercise these great attributes of life. 

And if liberty, freedom, justice and democracy are 
not meaningless terms, they are worth something to us. 
They are too priceless to surrender without a struggle, 

[123] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

and he who is unwilling to fight for freedom is unde- 
serving to enjoy that freedom. 

May I suggest this: It is proposed as a result of 
a great conference which closed in Minneapolis a week 
ago to-night, so far as possible to let every con- 
troversial question be laid on the table until after the 
war is closed. Of course, my friends, I would not 
have you or any one else interpret that statement to 
mean that the human aspiration for a better life can 
be or will be suppressed ; that ought to be encouraged ; 
but shall we array church against church, party against 
party, religion against religion, politics against politics, 
nationality against nationality, aye, even the question 
of raising funds to carry on the war, the bonds that 
are to be issued? Let us do our share to see to it 
that Uncle Sam has the fighting men and the men to 
produce at home and the money with which to carry 
on the war. Let us defer questions which can be de- 
ferred, questions that are likely to divide any ap- 
preciable element of our people in this war; let us re- 
main united and fight it out, no matter how long we 
fight, until America and America's allies shall have 
proved victorious in the struggle. 

To me the term America is more than a name. It 
is more than a country. It is more than a continent. 
To me America is a symbol of the ideas and the ideals 
for human betterment and human justice among the 
peoples of the world. Perhaps it may be strengthened 
by hope, but somehow there is a sub-consciousness 
in me that tells me that when for the first time in the 
history of the world a Teutonic army shall face the 
soldiers of the United States with the flag, the Star- 
tle] 



VICTORY DEMANDS UNITY 

Spangled Banner, waving above them, it will penetrate 
the very souls of the men in the German uniform. In 
all their fights they have met men carrying the stand- 
ards that Germany hated. They have never yet come 
in contact with Old Glory. 

I ought to say, my friends, that the policy pursued 
by the government of the United States in this war, in 
matters of development and growth and preparation, 
amazes those who are permitted to know the truth. 
Some day, my friends, you and I, who may be kept 
from all the information just now, will know what 
marvels America has wrought within these past few 
months. And then, too, we have started out on a dif- 
ferent line of action from that followed in any pre- 
vious wars in which we or any of the other countries 
on the globe had entered. It is to the honor of the 
committee of which I am Chairman, that, as a member 
of the Advisory Commission of the Council of Na- 
tional Defense, the bill was drafted that provides not 
only for compensation for injured soldiers and sailors 
and for their dependents, but also an opportunity of' 
insurance, so that if any of the men come back injured 
(they at least shall have the insurance to give them and 
their dependents an opportunity to live in some de- 
gree of comfort, the opportunity of increasing their 
pay so that they can afford to lay something away, 
so that when they return they shall have something as 
a nest-egg to give for themselves or to give to their 
families. We have tried to formulate a measure that 
shall relieve for all time the people of our country 
from the scandals and the injustice of the old pension 
system, but at the same time taking into consideration 

[125] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

our experience of the difference of the industrial 
and employers' liability acts, and the substitution 
of compensation for workmen so as to apply it 
to the soldiers and the sailors of Uncle Sam. 
We hope that the boys who are already in France 
and the boys who are going over to France 
shall have their minds free from the worry that their 
families might possibly go down in the standard of 
life in our communities. We want the boys of Uncle 
Sam fighting for us to feel that America, great 
America, will stand by them or those they may pos- 
sibly leave behind them. And I am proud to say that 
that measure passed the House of Representatives 
yesterday by an almost unanimous vote. 

We do not know now just exactly what sacrifices 
we may be called upon to make. Let us pray and hope 
and work that they may be few, if any at all; but this 
we feel assured of, from the President down to every 
one aiding him in the great work of carrying 
on the war, it is the purpose that the home shall be 
maintained, that the standard of American life shall 
not go down, but shall be maintained throughout the 
war. 

We must make it possible that our fighting force 
shall be provided with every necessity to fight and 
every means contributing to their subsistence and com- 
fort, and that the American people shall go on in their 
economic, industrial, social and spiritual life just as 
well as it is possible to do, and so, when it is necessary 
to make additional sacrifices, we shall — you, and you, 
and you — the people of Chicago, the people of Illinois, 
the people of the United States, stand as one solid 

[126] 



VICTORY DEMANDS UNITY 

phalanx of the manhood and the womanhood of the 
people of our country, of our Republic, united, de- 
termined to stand by our cause and our gallant Allies 
until the world has been made safe for freedom, for 
justice, for democracy, for humanity. 



[127] 



WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION FOR 
FIGHTERS 

When the soldiers go to the front they know that the 
standards at home of the wife, of the sister or child or 
parent, will be maintained while they are fighting. 

Meeting of National Army Officers in Senate Office Build- 
ing, assembled to learn the workings of the Soldiers and 
Sailors Separation and Insurance Bill originated by Mr. 
Gompers' Committee on Labor. Washington, D. C, October 
16th, 1917. 

/ T*HE law enacted is without question one of the 
greatest pieces of constructive, intelligent and 
humane legislation ever enacted by the Congress of 
the United States or any parliamentary body of any 
country in the world. When we started out into the 
maelstrom scarcely any one knew exactly where we 
would land. We knew that the old system ot pensions 
was wrong. We knew that the old system of pen- 
sions was one of grave injustice to many and of a 
considerable degree of favoritism to others. While 
that was unjust and discouraging, there was another 
and an exceedingly important feature in connection 
with pensions. More than likely you are as familiar as 
any one can be with the fact that as the result of our 
Civil War and as the result of the Spanish-American 
War, but particularly the Civil War, the question 
of pensions was made a political issue, with the one 

[128] 



COMPENSATION FOR FIGHTERS 

party regarded as the more liberal and generous in 
its treatment of the soldier and the sailor or the family 
and the dependents of the soldiers and sailors who had 
been killed, and the other political party supposed to 
be against generous treatment of America's soldiers 
and sailors. So, between the two political parties, the 
subject of pensions was made the shuttlecock to be 
driven hither and thither, for partisan and political 
advantage rather than for the best interests of the 
men who gave their lives or the families who were 
dependent upon the departed soldiers and sailors. 

The idea at that time was to cater to the old soldiers 
and sailors, to capture their vote. In many, many, 
Congressional districts, at elections, the result was 
determined not upon any question of the governmental 
agency to do good for the people of the country but 
upon the question whether there should be generous 
or niggardly pensions for the soldiers. Presidential 
elections were being determined by the soldiers' vote, 
by the vote of the people upon the issue of pensions. 

As I say, quite apart from the humanitarian side, 
quite apart from a constructive policy, and quite apart 
from the great moral influence that this measure would 
have upon our fighting boys and their dependents, 
there was also another great thought in our minds ; and 
that was to take this question of insurance and com- 
pensation for the soldiers and sailors and their de- 
pendents out of the arena of politics and political dis- 
sensions and make it a proposition that would be auto- 
matic, regardless of party. The men who were giv- 
ing so much of their lives, and perhaps their lives, for 
the cause of this Republic of ours, for the cause for 

[129] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

which our country entered into the war, the cause of 
standing by the ideals of freedom and democracy, de-^ 
served at least that their minds be relieved of any 
worry that might come to them were it otherwise, so 
when they go to the front, they know that the stand- 
ards at home of the wife, of the sister or child or par- 
ent shall be maintained while they are fighting for 
us who are at home. 

We started with a good guide in this. Under the 
old concept, which prevailed for more than two hun- 
dred years, the employer of workers had had a sort 
of responsibility under what were known as Em- 
ployers' Liability Laws, but he also had defenses which 
usually denied or refused justice to the workers in- 
jured, or the families of the workers killed, so that it 
was practically impossible to receive anything tangible 
or adequate through the courts. Within these past 
twenty years there has come a change from the old 
Employers' Liability to Workmen's Compensation, a 
change which takes out of the arena of industry and 
industrial accidents the litigation involved in suits for 
recovery and substitutes in its stead a system of au- 
tomatic compensation for injuries or for death. It 
was realized that all accidents cannot be avoided de- 
spite the best of protection and precaution. 

There is a percentage of accidents that seem to be 
inevitable. Still the industry should bear the re- 
sponsibility of all accidents, and thus automatically 
give compensation to the injured worker or compen- 
sation to the dependent of a worker killed. 

We took this thought and principle as a model and 
so, instead of having the principle of employers' li- 

[130] 



COMPENSATION FOR FIGHTERS 

ability apply to the men in the service, we decided that 
the Government should take this broader, newer, social- 
conscience proposition, regard the soldiers and the 
sailors as employees of the Government of the United 
States, and automatically apply the principle of work- 
men's compensation to them. 

I am more pleased than I can tell you in words that 
you will have the pleasure of hearing from the Honor- 
able Julian W. Mack at this afternoon's session. I 
considered it one of the greatest honors that has ever 
been conferred upon me when I asked Judge Mack to 
be chairman of the committee to draft this measure. 
He gave up the entire summer to which he was en- 
titled as a vacation, and put in so many hours of 
every day on this work. I am sure his modesty would 
not permit him to mention it, much less to give any de- 
tails. But day after day, every day, sixteen, eighteen 
or more hours were not too many for him to devote to 
the constructive work of the bill, now a law. With 
him were associated a number of men who did splendid 
contributory service but to no other man in the same 
degree belongs the credit for this comprehensive 
measure. He will address you this afternoon and if 
you want to have some good fun, if you want to know 
what this law contains, if you want to have it in- 
delibly impressed upon your minds, after he gets 
through with his masterful address — I am sure he 
couldn't make any other — you ask him questions upon 
anything about which you have any doubt; just grill 
him, and accept my assurance that you will be well re- 
warded with his answers. 

While talking to so many of the officers and men 
[131] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

in the Army and Navy of the country, I cannot re- 
frain from saying just a word in regard to the sub- 
ject of our own war. It may be entirely extraneous 
for me to do it and to take up time that others shouldT 
occupy. But, men, to me this war is the greatest event 
in human history since the Creation. This is the time 
that civilization is really in the balance. The man 
who will not fight for that, the man who will not as- 
sume willingly the risk of his life that freedom and 
justice and democracy may live, is unworthy to live 
in a civilized democratic country. 

There was a time in my life when — ah! — and a 
major portion of it, until very recently, that is, until 
the breaking out of this war — when there was no man 
in all the world to whom I would take second place in 
my pacificism. But when I found in this great mili- 
tarist machine, this imperialist machine of Germany, 
the men who had pledged themselves with others and 
with me to go to extremes in order to maintain inter- 
national peace, when I saw these men wantonly and 
flagrantly trampling under foot their pledges of inter- 
national peace, when I found that these men responded 
to the call of their Kaiser, and found that they were 
invading innocent Belgium and were on their way to 
France — I decided he who could not understand at 
that time that peace propaganda was simply a move- 
ment of the military juggernaut to crush the spirit of 
the men of the world, was a man bereft of ordinary 
common sense and understanding. When I saw this 
response to the colors to crush the spirit of freedom 
and democracy throughout the world, I was ready to 
fight! 

[132] 



COMPENSATION FOR FIGHTERS 

But if you are less interested in my viewpoint, yet 
we are all of us interested in this fact. This you know, 
that Mr. Daniels was one of the most pronounced 
pacifists in America. You know that Mr. Baker was 
one of the most pronounced pacifists in America and 
stood shoulder to shoulder upon that principle with 
Secretary Daniels. You know, too, that the President 
of the United States, only little more than a year ago, 
declared that the people who are conscious of right 
may be too proud to fight. He was such an ultra- 
pacifist that he believed — and no one questions his 
absolute sincerity — he believed in the righteousness 
and the conscientiousness of a cause, hence, it would 
not be necessary to fight. 

Events have demonstrated the fact, and he had come 
to another conclusion when he appeared before the 
Congress of the United States on the evening of April 
2nd, — that there comes a time in the history of a peo- 
ple when they must be too proud not to fight. And so, 
the great leaders of our Government, pacifists, and 
so the great rank and file of American citizenship, 
pacifists, and anti-militarists, are engaged in this war 
to give up every dollar, every ounce of energy, and if 
necessary, our lives, that we may have peace, enduring 
peace, and are fighting in order that militarism and 
imperialism shall be wiped off the face of the earth. 



[133] 



A CRUSADE FOR FREEDOM 

Whether we will it or not, it is writ in the stars that 
we must fight and fight on until freedom has been achieved. 

Anti-Disloyalty Mass Meeting in Carnegie Hall, New 
York City, November 2nd, 1917. 

/ I ^HERE is a very deep significance to the men of 
**- labor in all that is involved in this world struggle. 
From by-gone ages, the men of wealth and title were 
free, wherever they lived. It is always the poor, the 
workers who have suffered tyranny and injustice wher- 
ever tyranny and injustice existed. The United States 
of America is not a perfect organization. It has not 
eliminated every vestige of injustice and wrong, but 
it is by big odds the greatest justice-dealing, liberty- 
loving nation on the face of the globe. 

The incidents which occurred one after another, — 
the attempt to corrupt our life, political, industrial and 
commercial, the effort to suborn our people and then 
following it, a propaganda that undertook to deny us 
the right to go where international law plainly guar- 
anteed we had the right to be and to go, the attempt 
upon the lives and then the murder of hundreds of 
peaceable people, non-combatants, people engaged in 
lawful pursuits, the killing, the murdering of our in- 
nocent men and women and children, upon the high 

[134] 



A CRUSADE FOR FREEDOM 

seas — was there to be no limit to our forbearance or 
our patience? 

The President of the United States came in for a 
great deal of criticism because he tried to avoid our 
entrance into the war. Some in their criticism 
not only ridiculed him, but indulged in language more 
forcible than elegant or polite. Aye, the German press 
ridiculed the President of the United States because he 
had sent so many letters and protests and notes. 

Finally, after the sinking of more of our ships, and 
the killing of more of our people, despite the pledge 
which was made by the German Imperial Government, 
the President finally brought the entire situation before 
the Congress of the United States and the Congress, 
exercising its constitutional function, declared that be- 
cause of the acts of the Imperial Government of Ger- 
many, hostile and destructive to the people, to the lives, 
to the safety of our nation, war should be made upon 
the Imperial German Government. Congress is the 
only constituted authority in America that had the 
power to declare war. To the pacifists who say, "Why 
not submit the question of war to the people of the 
United States for a vote?" I say, will any pacifist, now 
or hereafter, tell me by what authority such a question 
could be submitted to the people? 

And if some authority could be provided, how long 
would it take for the people to have the power and the 
authority to determine whether we shall have peace or 
war? To amend the constitution of the United States 
would take not less than two or three or five or six 
years. In the meantime — the Kaiser iiber Allies. 

No one is justified in assuming to be a prophet. But 
[135] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

may I venture this thought, that the future historian 
will write something after this fashion; what the 
Declaration of Independence meant in creating this new 
nation in the world and giving a new meaning to the 
rights of man, to the establishment of the principles 
of justice and freedom and democracy — what the 
Declaration of independence meant to the people of 
the United States of America, the declaration of war 
by the United States will mean to every people of all 
the nations of the world. This was a war. To-day, 
and since the entrance of the United States into this 
Titanic struggle, it is no longer a war — it is a crusade 
for freedom and justice! 

Some have said that they want an immediate peace. 
I ask you, my friends, and I pray that you may ask 
any one who urges an immediate peace, what the 
meaning of it all would be. Suppose we could es- 
tablish peace this very night and wake up to-morrow 
morning with this war ended, what would it mean? 
What would it mean? The plan of the militarist ma- 
chine of Germany was to dominate the world. It has 
practically put Belgium, Serbia and Rourtiania out of 
existence as nations. Of course they will be revived, 
we will revive them — we must revive them. I could 
not allow myself to finish the sentence without inter- 
jecting that thought, lest there might be in the mind 
of some one the thought that I had any doubt as to 
the final outcome of this struggle. 

With peace to-morrow morning, the Kaiser's mili- 
tary machine has won, the whole history of the world 
for all time must write down that the militarist ma- 
chine of the Kaiser has been victorious. Part of Rus- 

[136] 



A CRUSADE FOR FREEDOM 

sia overrun, part of Italy overrun, part of France over- 
run — the only thing that stands between the military 
machine and the naval machine of Germany, are the 
navies of England and France. 

A peace to-morrow morning is a justification of 
the policy of German militarism and the mere post- 
ponement of the balance of the fight to some other 
time. We are in this war, men and women — we are in 
this war! We may never again find the civilized na- 
tions, the democracies of the world, so united against 
autocracy and militarism. 

The time was not of our choosing. The psychology 
of it, however, is here. Whether we will it or not, it 
is writ in the stars that we must fight and fight and 
fight on until freedom has been achieved. Russia was 
betrayed by her Czar and now, through the workings 
of German diplomatic intrigue, lies weak, so weak, that 
no one can tell what the immediate future of that 
country will be. Here we are as a nation, a Republic 
based more upon voluntary service than any other 
country on the face of the globe. Is the confidence 
which is placed in us to give voluntary, patriotic, hu- 
manitarian service, to be regarded as a misplaced con- 
fidence or are we going to respond with the spirit of the 
volunteer who will give his all that justice and right 
shall prevail? Shall we permit this spreading of that 
same poison of German diplomatic intrigue among our 
own people, that we too shall be as impotent as Russia 
seems to be to-day? The men of labor with a deep, 
if not the deepest, interest in the success of democracy 
and the power of self-expression that democracy may 
be shown not to be inefficient but the most efficient 

[137] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

power existing in all the world, we, you and I, men and 
women who have believed in everlasting universal 
peace, are discovering this fact, that militarism, wher- 
ever it has existed, was thoroughly organized, while 
the advocates of peace were loose- jointed, and had no 
opportunity to give concrete expression not only to 
their views but to their hopes, and to preserve their 
lives. 

We are going to fight. We are going to win this 
war. And when this war is over the advocates and 
adherents and lovers of peace will be organized, and 
will destroy the militarist machine. Yes, we will have 
peace. But first, before we proceed to discuss the 
terms of peace, or to confer relative to peace, the 
Kaiser and his army must get out of Serbia, must get 
out of outraged Belgium, must get out of gallant 
France. They must get back. The sacrifices de- 
manded will be great, the travail and pain will be 
great, but as a result of it all, the world will be re- 
juvenated, the world will be reborn and the injustice 
of man to man will be a thing of the past. The so- 
cial conscience of the world is being aroused. Yes, it 
is painful to think of the great wrongs and the great 
injustice we have suffered. Of course, many of us 
will feel the pang of sons lost or wounded, but my 
friends, the men and women who were the fathers and 
the mothers of our colonial army, who took up the 
cudgels to make the fight that the Republic of the 
United States might be a fact, did not flinch at suf- 
fering. And now, is there any one in our time who 
regrets that one of his kith and kin was in that revo- 
lution, made the supreme sacrifice? In the great Civil 

[138] 



A CRUSADE FOR FREEDOM 

War, when the maintenance of the nation and the 
abolition of human slavery in our country were at 
stake, — the men and the women who gave up their 
sons, their brothers, in that fight, — is there a man or 
a woman to-day but who is proud if he can link him- 
self to one who did something to save the nation and 
abolish slavery? And so, when the time shall come 
when your brother or son, or my brother or my son 
shall have made the supreme sacrifice, it will eat to 
the very vitals of our being, but he who would not 
fight to maintain the integrity of the Republic of the 
United States, and of our Allies and our common 
ideals, does not deserve to enjoy the privileges of life 
in our country. 

I would call your attention, my friends, to the fact 
that more than a month before the declaration of war, 
it was my privilege to call a great conference of the 
representatives of the organized labor of America for 
the purpose of discussing and declaring the attitude 
which labor would take, whether in peace or in war. 
Before I read a paragraph of that declaration, I de- 
sire to say that the President of the United States, 
the executive officers of the departments and the Coun- 
cil of National Defense have made declarations to the 
effect that the standards of life and of law for the 
protection and promotion of the rights, the interests 
and the welfare of the workers, shall be maintained, 
improved, but not lowered. 

I want to close with a short paragraph of the dec- 
laration made by the official, responsible officers of the 
American Labor Movement : 

[139] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

We, the officers of the National and International Trades 
Unions of America, in national conference assembled in 
the capital of our nation, hereby pledge ourselves, in peace 
or in war, in stress or in storm, to stand unreservedly by 
the standards of liberty and the safety and preservation 
of the institutions and ideals of our republic. In this 
solemn hour of our nation's life, it is our earnest hope that 
our republic may be safeguarded in its unswerving desire 
for peace, that our people may be spared the horrors and 
the burdens of war, that they may have the opportunity 
to cultivate and develop the arts of peace, human brother- 
hood and civilization. But despite all our endeavors and 
hopes, should our country be drawn into the maelstrom of 
the European conflict, we, with these ideals of liberty and 
justice herein declared as the indispensable basis for 
national policies, offer our services to our country in every 
field of activity, to defend, safeguard the Republic of the 
United States of America against its enemies, whomsoever 
they may be, and we call upon our fellow workers and 
fellow citizens in the holy name of liberty, justice, freedom 
and humanity, to devotedly and patriotically give like serv- 
ice. 



[140] 



IN CANADA FOR VICTORY 

Do not for a moment imagine that, after this war, we 
are going back to the old conditions. New relations must 
be established and new understandings reached. Men and 
women who labor can no longer be disregarded by the 
powers that be. 

For thousands of years the question has remained: Am 
I my brother's keeper? Yes, you are your brother's keeper, 
because, unless you bear his burdens, he will help tear 
you down. 

Canadian Victory Loan Meeting at the Armories, To- 
ronto, November 28th, 1917. 

Q OMEHOW or other there is a destiny which 
k -' shapes our ends, rough hew their as we will, and 
it is a pressing thought upon my mind that there is 
a destiny which is shaping all that we hold dear; that 
is crystallizing the thought and the activities of the 
peoples of the democracies of the world, so that the 
ideals for which we are striving shall find their ex- 
pression translated into the realities of life. There 
are some people who, touched with the enormity of the 
sacrifices which are being made and which may yet 
have to be made, are horror-stricken and terror- 
stricken at it all ; and in a large part I share their feel- 
ings of horror and terror. It seems to be a fact of 
life that there is little worth while in the achievements 
of the human race unless it is sanctified by the blood 
of man. This utterance of mine, I venture to ask 

[141] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

you to believe me, would not have passed my lips a 
little more than three years ago. 

From my very earliest young manhood it was my 
proud boast and it was my intense belief that there 
would not again occur any large interruption of the 
international peace of the world. I was a pacifist "par 
excellence." 

I am taking you into my confidence in telling you 
that I had been approached on many occasions to have 
my peace utterances done up in some sort of book form 
in order that they might be spread throughout Amer- 
ica and elsewhere. At last the Carnegie Peace As- 
sociation prevailed upon me to turn over all that which 
I had spoken and written upon the subject of inter- 
national peace and then I gave it over to the printer. 
I wanted to edit or revise it because there were some 
thoughts that might have been crudely expressed. 
Those who conferred with me told me that it was not 
necessary to revise it at all because what was there 
showed "growth and development" and I was again 
convinced that they were right. 

Then, lo and behold, in August, 19 14, I found my- 
self just howling in the wilderness. I had been be- 
fuddled and fooled by a schemer and deviser un- 
paralleled in the history of the world, and out of an 
almost clear sky came the declaration of war by the 
Imperial German Kaiser. At the command of this 
militarist, this imperialist, the peoples of the world 
were set at each others' throats. I immediately went 
to the printer and got hold of that damn-fool stuff 
and took it back. 

I have sometimes a private opinion on certain mat- 
[142] 



IN CANADA FOR VICTORY 

ters but the man who will not change his opinion when 
facts are presented to disprove that opinion, is very 
much like the man who said, "To argue with a man 
who has bidden good-by to his reason is like giving 
medicine to the dead." 

These utterances of mine in regard to eternal peace 
and against international war will have to be revised 
after the close of the war when victory and triumph 
shall have been won. For I verily believe that when 
— mark you, I do not say if — when we shall have tri- 
umphed in this war, there will be no more great mili- 
tarist preparations in the great countries of the world. 

His Imperial Majesty who broke all the laws 
of God and man in inaugurating this war perhaps 
did not know the host with which he would have to 
deal. He had been planning and scheming for nearly 
half a century. You will remember that the Em- 
peror of Germany had made the people believe that 
his preparation and his great army were for the pur^ 
pose of maintaining the peace of the world. When 
he was called the War Lord, he would endeavor to 
explain and to make the people of the world under- 
stand or believe that his whole purpose was that of 
maintaining international peace. And now I ask you 
to consider for a moment whether it is not true that 
these false pretenses made by him and his underlings 
were really intended and planned to lull the people of 
the world into a fancied security, so that they would 
feel that it was not necessary to prepare themselves 
against any aggression on his part. 

And I may say in passing, that the plan of the whole 
imperialist machine of Germany was intended to be 

[143] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

conveyed in thought to the people of the whole world. 

If there be any members of the Socialist Party in 
this city or in this audience, I ask that you and they 
consider this fact; if you read the philosophy of the 
German Socialist school, you will find that it is pat- 
terned after the autocratic power of the Imperial 
German Government; that it is at variance with and 
in opposition to the great labor movement as ex- 
pressed by the trade unions of the world. In 
our trade unions we represent in fact and in 
philosophy the fundamental principle of voluntarily 
and individually yielding a certain amount of our 
rights in order that all our other rights may be pro- 
tected and advanced. Under the scheme of the Ger- 
man school of Socialist philosophy, there is the thought 
that everything must be done by the government and 
the individual must lose himself. 

There has never been a congress of labor to which 
a representative of the German Socialist party and 
the German Socialist philosophy has not endeavored 
to break in and break through. There has never been 
any assemblage of the organized labor movement in 
America, Canada, England, or any other country, 
France included, but that an endeavor has been made 
to foist upon this labor movement the German mili- 
tarist idea as modified and understood by German So- 
cialism. In all international and national conferences, 
their influences have operated and I freely admit to 
you that it was impossible for me to make myself 
proof against the influences they brought to bear — 
the sophistry they brought to bear, in so far as I be- 

[144] 



IN CANADA FOR VICTORY 

lieved them to be sincere in their advocacy of interna- 
tional peace. 

So far as their other "bunk" is concerned there is 
nothing in it for me. For there never was more 
sophistry contained in any pretended philosophy than 
there is in that which is embodied in German Social- 
ism. It is an effort to hypnotize and chloroform the 
world into a fancied security while they are playing 
their part splendidly in support of the militarism of 
their country in order that it may dominate the world. 
I ask you whether in the face of all that has been 
done — the flagrant violation of international law, the 
violation of every moral law, the violation of every 
treaty, the violation of every promise and pledge — is 
it not time for the manhood of our countries to rally 
in the defense of all that is left for manhood and 
womanhood to revere? 

I have heard, as you have heard, of conscientious 
objectors. You have heard, as I have heard, of those 
who are now pacifists. I want to ask you whether 
you can transplant your mind — I cannot imagine you 
transplanting your bodies — to Berlin and then inquire 
of yourselves what you think his Imperial Majesty, 
the Kaiser, would say to any one who declared him- 
self a pacifist or a conscientious objector. There was 
one pacifist, one conscientious objector, in Germany, 
Dr. Karl Liebknecht, and the Kaiser and his Govern- 
ment immediately put him in prison. 

Is it possible that we have so far forgotten the 
spirit of our race, have we so far been unable to ap- 
preciate the development of the human race, that we 
cannot or will not do our duty ? The ordinary citizen 

[145] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

goes home at night, locks the doors and goes restfully 
to sleep, but when there is a band of murderers who 
threaten and by physical force endanger the lives not 
only of himself but of his wife and little ones, when 
he knows that some of his neighbors have been robbed 
and ravished, who could be the conscientious objector 
or pacifist who would not rise with his fellows in the 
defense of his home and his family ? 

Perhaps I am making an excuse for myself for my 
change, transition or development from pacifist to 
fighting man. Whether I am or not I hold that facts, 
not theory, have demonstrated the view I maintained 
to be unsound, and confronted with the facts of my 
time, I hold that any man in France, England, Ameri- 
ca, Canada or any other democratic country which 
enjoys the freedom and privileges of free institutions, 
who would not fight in defense of them is a coward 
and a poltroon. 

I have heard some men criticise me rather severely 
because I have counseled my fellow workers in the 
United States against participation at this time in in- 
ternational conferences in which representatives of 
the enemy country would participate. Whatever 
people have said about me, no one has accused me of 
being a fool. You can perhaps fool me personally 
quite easily but it is not easy, I think, to catch me 
napping on any big question. My belief is that when 
these invitations to international conferences were 
sent out from Petrograd, or Stockholm or Berne, they 
were already more or less tainted with German mili- 
tarist sympathies. You never have heard any German 
representative or any one with German sympathies 

[146] 



IN CANADA FOR VICTORY 

urge an international conference of labor so long as it 
seemed likely that the Kaiser's forces were marching 
triumphantly on Calais or Paris. As soon as the Ger^ 
man forces were checked it upset the whole plans of 
the Kaiser, because there was nothing in their whole 
plan of forty years' preparation but that looked toward 
the onward march of the militarist machine, over-rid- 
ing and crushing everything before it like a jugger- 
naut. After the halt that was the beginning of the 
end. The intrigues in the other countries began and 
international conferences were proposed. 

There is not the slightest feeling of bitterness or 
hatred in my heart or soul against any human being 
on earth but for the Kaiser. I would like to see him 
somewhere so that he could do no more harm — prob- 
ably St. Helena or some such place. The mischief- 
maker must be guarded. Our fight is not alone for 
the existence of the democracies of the world. The 
German people must crush militarism and imperialism 
from within or the democracies of the world must 
crush Kaiserism from without and introduce democ- 
racy into that country. 

Look to any of the countries of the whole world, 
make a mental survey of them and answer for your- 
self the question: are any of the countries of the 
world neutral ? Look to Holland, Switzerland and 
the Scandinavian countries. Awed by the example of 
the ravishment of Belgium and with the great military 
machine of Germany yet to a considerable extent pow- 
erful, Holland, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden and 
Denmark have become rich by serving the needs of 
Germany and have been paid in the promissory notes 

[147] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

of Germany. If Germany wins, a plethora of wealth 
will flow into these countries. If Germany loses, then 
these countries are practically bankrupt. Neutral 
countries ! Neutral minds ! There "ain't no such ani- 
mal !" Either fish or cut bait ; either fight or buy Vic- 
tory Bonds. 

The time has gone by when we can view this war as 
a proposition academic in its character. It is removed 
from that realm and we are now in the arena of the 
world's fight for life and decent living. I hope I shall 
be able to avoid, and I shall try to avoid, any inter- 
ference in the internal affairs of the Dominion, but I 
hold it to be a first duty of every Canadian by birth 
or by citizenship to do everything within his power 
to unite the people in winning this war. I know some- 
thing of the differences of your political parties, both 
of the immediate past and the distant past. I cannot 
say that their choice has always been wisest. You 
make the same mistakes that we make in the United 
States, but that is not the question. You may differ 
on many things when conditions of peace prevail, and 
let me say here I am not going to discuss the wisdom 
or unwisdom of Canada joining in the war. Suffice 
it for me to express the opinion that your entrance 
into the war was wise, patriotic, and human, but 
whether that is true or not is not the question. The 
fact is that you are at war and the duly constituted 
authorities of the Dominion of Canada have in a law- 
ful way entered into this conflict. It is no longer, 
therefore, a matter for academic discussion. It is a 
matter of fact with which you have to deal ; and hav- 
ing entered the war, the people of Canada, without 

[148] 



IN CANADA FOR VICTORY 

regard to political opinions, without regard to religion 
or any other difference, ought to stand united in one 
solid phalanx to bring victory and glory to the Do- 
minion and every other nation in the fight for free- 
dom and democracy. 

In addition to having been a pacifist I was a be- 
liever, and am still a staunch believer, in free institu- 
tions and the freedom of actions of men and women. 
I am opposed to force whenever and wherever it can 
be avoided, and when the question of conscription 
came up as a practical question in the United States, 
I opposed it. I hold that, at least, voluntary institu- 
tions should first be put to the final test before com- 
pulsion is employed. But the Congress of the United 
States in its lawful right ordained that there should 
be selective draft conscription. While I used every 
influence to prevent it, I failed in my object. The 
Congress of the United States, the duly constituted 
authority of my country, decreed otherwise. The de- 
cision was made and I held and shall hold it to be the 
duty of every American citizen in time of war to obey 
the decision rightfully and lawfully reached. It is all 
very good when we are at peace to battle with each 
other for the supremacy of our ideals, but when the 
duly constituted authority in time of war arrives at 
a conclusion it is no longer a subject to discuss. 

A few weeks ago a Russian came to my office in 
Washington, and while we were discussing certain 
matters he was seriously asked the question whether 
he approved of the idea being proclaimed by some Rus- 
sian leaders that there should be a vote by the soldiers 
whether or not a particular advance should be made. 

[1491 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

He answered yes. He really believed it. Can you 
imagine a great army corps covering an area of two, 
three or four hundred miles, and each regiment and 
each company voting on the question of whether they 
should advance or retreat? And just imagine one 
regiment voting aye and another voting no! What 
wonderful discipline and effectiveness there would be 
in such an army! I wonder where General Haig 
would be if that system prevailed in the forces of the 
British, Canadian or Australian boys? This is war. 
This is not playing a game of war, and when the Con- 
gress of the United States or the Parliament of Can- 
ada has decreed lawfully a certain course, it is the 
duty of every man to stand by and see that that policy 
is put into successful operation. The same is equally 
true of the general staff of any army. When the 
Commander in Chief issues an order it is the duty of 
every soldier to obey. 

I know some people have criticised my change from 
pacifism to the attitude I now hold in aiding my coun- 
try in the war and the cause for which we are united. 
The United States is not and never has been in a war 
of aggression. It has been altruistic. I think you 
will agree there is no public man in the world who has 
been more severely criticised for his actions than the 
honored head of the American republic, President 
Woodrow Wilson. Sometimes I have had occasion 
to be in Buffalo and have taken advantage of the op- 
portunity to see some old friends on the border. I 
know they were kindly disposed towards me and they 
were not hostile to the President but their criticism of 
Mr. Wilson was severe because he was writing notes 

[150] 



IN CANADA FOR VICTORY 

and was not doing anything but sending notes. 
You know that the President declared some time ago 
that there were some people who felt themselves so 
justified and morally right that they were too proud 
to fight. He believed, and I am satisfied he believed 
sincerely, in the honesty of the pledges made by the 
Imperial German Government for reparation and the 
stoppage of the wholesale murder of innocent women 
and children. Do you know that Mr. Wilson is a 
pacifist? Secretary Lansing is a pacifist. Secretary 
of War Baker is a pacifist. Secretary Daniels of the 
Navy is a pacifist. The Secretary of Agriculture, 
Professor Houston, and Secretary of Labor Wilson 
are pacifists. I do not know for certain, but I believe 
Mr. Redfield, Secretary of Commerce, is also a paci- 
fist. Just imagine the President and a cabinet of paci- 
fists at last being driven by their conscience and their 
duty to take up arms and throw the whole strength 
of the man power and the wealth of the greatest re- 
public in the world into the arena to make this com- 
mon cause success f til! 

I suppose it is not necessary to argue the justifica- 
tion of the United States in entering this war. You 
will remember that Bernstorff, the German Ambassa- 
dor to the United States, published an advertisement 
in the American papers warning the people of the 
United States against taking passage on the ill-fated 
Lusitania. You know that a few days after that 
warning a German submarine torpedoed that great 
ship and sent her to the bottom of the ocean with 
nearly 1500 men, women and children, not one of 
them a combatant. 

[1511 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

Patience! There never was in the history of the 
world, so far as my knowledge goes, any country 
which has exhibited more patience than the govern- 
ment of the United States. You know it is not the 
braggart, it is not the bully who is dependable. It is 
the man, like the nation, patient and forbearing, who 
avoids the contest or conflict, but who takes the ad- 
vice of Shakespeare in one of his characters : "Beware 
of entrance to a quarrel ; but being in, bear *t that the 
opposed may beware of thee." So we are in it 

Mention has been made of Russia. No greater 
tragedy has ever been enacted than has been and is 
being enacted in Russia at the present time, and it 
ought to be a warning to some of our friends in the 
United States and Canada. See what has happened 
to the great Russian people. I will go with any man 
or woman to obtain for labor and for the people the 
largest measure of return for labor performed and for 
freedom to be secured but I will not join with any 
one in so far overrunning our goal that we lose our 
venture. 

There are new thoughts, new concepts, and new 
duties as well as new responsibilities to be met. Do not 
for a moment imagine that after this war we are go- 
ing back to the old conditions. There is a responsi- 
bility on the part of the employer as well as on the part 
of the worker. There is a responsibility on the part 
of the government as well as on the part of the masses 
of the people. New relations must be established and 
new understandings reached. Men and women who 
labor can no longer be disregarded by the powers that 
be. 

[152] 



IN CANADA FOR VICTORY 

There must come something out of this war that 
will compensate the people for the sacrifices that they 
are making. 

I return to Russia because I want it to sink into 
your minds and your hearts that there is no limit to 
the extent to which I will give my support to secure 
the best sort of conditions of life and labor for the 
toiling masses of the world, but I will not permit my- 
self to occupy the position of a fool rushing in where 
angels fear to tread. Under the pretense of securing 
everything that the human mind can conceive, the 
Maximalists, or Bolsheviki, of Russia are betraying the 
people of Russia into the hands of that monster of 
modern times, the militaristic and Imperialistic Gov- 
ernment of Germany. Just think of it, the officers of 
the General Staff of the Germans being counselors and 
advisers of a pretended Government of Maximalists 
in Russia to secure a better life for the people of Rus- 
sia! I have been to Germany and I have seen condi- 
tions there, and to pretend that there is any hope for 
the people of Russia while the German militarist ma- 
chine remains, is preposterous, disgusting, a base fab- 
rication and an intrigue to befool and befog the peo- 
ple of Russia. 

Imagine the great Russian people on their hands and 
knees crawling like vipers, beseeching his Imperial 
Majesty for protection and the alleviation of their 
miserable conditions! I congratulate Britain, Can- 
ada, Australia and the United States upon this one 
fact: I congratulate them on the strength and power 
of the labor movement. If Russia had a well regu- 
lated labor movement founded upon evolutionary 

[153] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

progress and natural growth, you would not find, the 
Bolsheviki. And with all the intrigue of German di- 
plomacy and German money, if it had not been for the 
great trades union movement in Great Britain, Can- 
ada, Australia and the United States, you would have 
found some of the German intrigue in all those coun- 
tries as now represented by the Russian Maximalists. 

This war is an indictment of the German Socialist 
philosophy. Where it has manifested itself at all it 
has broken down. It has broken down in Germany 
and it has proven treacherous to the people of the 
other countries. The Socialist party of America re- 
pudiated this war and condemned it just as if it had 
been made in America instead of in Germany. The 
German Socialists had neither the courage nor the 
understanding to take their stand in the beginning 
against the war. Had they then opposed it, their 
sacrifice of ten, twenty, thirty or fifty thousand lives 
would probably have prevented the dominant classes 
from entering an international conflict. The German 
Socialists failed there. 

They have been treacherous elsewhere. Some have 
said, "Why not enter upon a conference for the pur- 
pose of ending this war and bring peace?" It is not 
everybody who understands this fact, — that to bring 
about peace now would instil in the minds of the 
whole world now and ever afterwards that the Ger- 
mans were the conquerors in this war. Germany has 
achieved some of the things which she started out to 
accomplish. She has crushed Serbia and Roumania; 
she has ravished and overrun Belgium; she has over- 
run a large part of France; and don't you know that 

[154] 



IN CANADA FOR VICTORY 

if Germany were to conquer both France and England 
including Canada, she would take hold of the British 
and French navies as a prize for her conquest ? Imag- 
ine, then, Germany in possession of two powerful na- 
vies in addition to her own! What hope could we 
have for the safety of Canadians and Americans then? 

There can be no peace; not now. They have gone 
too far. Before we can think of peace, much less 
espouse it, the Germans must go back from Serbia, 
they must go back from Roumania, back from France 
and back from Belgium, back to their own territory, 
and then we can talk of peace. 

This meeting was called primarily as a gathering to 
impress upon the minds of those here and elsewhere 
the necessity for and the duty of winning this war by 
each of us doing either one or the other of two things 
or both, if possible. The men who can fight should 
give themselves voluntarily, if they can. Do not wait 
for the draft. Volunteer! I have five nephews and 
seven cousins in the American army. One nephew 
some months ago was shot and killed in Haiti in the 
service of the United States Government. My grand- 
son, nineteen years of age, volunteered in the aviation 
service of the United States army. They will not let 
me fight ; there are many men and women who^ would 
not be permitted to fight, but they can help with 
money. It is our duty to make it safe for our boys at 
the front. 

At to-day's magnificent parade thousands and thou- 
sands of people stood on the sidewalks. I was elated 
when I looked upon the faces of women and children 
who were there. Some one by my side said, "Is it 

[155] " 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

not sad to see them?" I said "No." There was no 
sadness in their faces. There was simply an 
acceptance of the situation as they found it and 
a determination to see this thing through, no matter 
what the cost. Those of you who cannot fight can 
at least help in the fight by buying Victory Bonds. 
You are not giving the Government one cent and your 
investment gives you the best security that any in- 
vestment in Canada or elsewhere can give you. The 
whole wealth and all the assets of this rich Dominion 
safeguard your investment. In addition you will have 
saved $50 or $100 or $500 which you would perhaps 
not have saved if you had not purchased Victory 
Bonds. If we should fail in this conflict, your fifty 
dollars or anything else you might have would not be 
worth a snap of your fingers. If we should fail, the 
lights of freedom would go out for the whole world. 
After all, what good would your fifty or one hundred 
dollars be if we lost? Coming over the border at 
Niagara Falls we learned that men soliciting money 
for Victory Bonds were near and to show where my 
heart is I subscribed for a $50 bond. It was not much, 
but I wanted to show where my sympathies lie. If 
that fifty goes to help on Victory, it is yours with my 
compliments. And because of the fact that the Cana- 
dian labor movement and the American labor movement 
are one, we decided it was our duty to see to it that 
we show where our feelings lie, and so with pride and 
satisfaction we have invested $10,000 in Victory 
Bonds. I have the pleasure of exhibiting to you now 
the documents and receipts of the transaction which 
was made to-day through Mr. H. H. Williams. 

[156] 



IN CANADA FOR VICTORY 

I know there has been an effort made, a very nar- 
row and restricted effort, to divide the American and 
Canadian labor movement. It would be the gravest 
error, the biggest mistake in the world, to un- 
^dertake to bring about such a separation. A few 
weeks ago as a member of the Council of National 
Defense in the United States, we were holding a meet- 
ing for the purpose of considering the subject of in- 
dustrial vocation and trade training. Among others a 
well known Canadian, Sir Charles Ross, appeared be- 
fore our Board. He was the owner of a large plant 
for the manufacture of arms, as you know, and I be- 
lieve the Canadian government has taken that factory 
over. He stated this to the Council : "I believe that 
it is to the best interests of Canadian workers and 
Canadian employers as well as those in the United 
States, that there should be maintained the best pos- 
sible international relations between the labor move- 
ments of both the Dominion and the Republic." 

He said further, "I am going upon a tour through- 
out the United States and Canada and wherever I go 
I intend to impress upon the minds of employers that 
it is the best thing for them as well as for the work- 
ers to have collective bargaining with union labor. 
My experience has demonstrated this one fact, that I 
never got such good service from my employees, I 
never felt more reliance in their conduct and in their 
work, than when I dealt with them as an entity in an 
organized capacity." 

I came here after a year of hard work culminating 
in the convention of the American Federation of La- 
bor which lasted two weeks with practically every mo- 

[157] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

ment taken up with responsibilities, hard work and 
great problems. I was asked to come to Toronto and 
say a word and I accepted the invitation with satisfac- 
tion. I came to bring a message from the workers and 
the people of the United States to you, the people of 
Canada, all her people, with her wonderful past and her 
great future, and my message to all the people of the 
world is this : Men and women, let us be true to our- 
selves and true to one another. Let us do our whole 
duty to make it possible that the torch of freedom, 
which has been kept alight for all these centuries, may 
not be extinguished in an hour of shame, but be kept 
burning up and up, a flame illuminating the whole 
world, now and for evermore. 



[158] 



ALWAYS THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM 

The present war discloses the struggle between the in- 
stitutions of democracy and those of autocracy. Democracy 
cannot be established by patches upon an autocratic system. 
The foundations of civilized intercourse between individuals 
must be organized upon principles of democracy and scien- 
tific principles of human welfare. Then a national structure 
can be perfected in harmony with humanitarian idealism, a 
structure that will stand the test of the necessities of peace 
or war. 

Twenty-sixth Convention of the United Mine Workers of 
America, at Indianapolis, Ind., January 23rd, 1018. 

'TpHERE comes upon me a feeling which is inex- 
•*- pressible because I am standing before you this 
morning in this great convention of the United Mine 
Workers of America. When I see you here assem- 
bled — and I am informed more than sixteen hundred 
duly accredited delegates representing the coal miners 
of America are here, the men who in modern industry 
are of prime importance — my mind wanders back to 
the past when the men in the organized movement 
tried to bring about cohesive organized effort, and 
when I compare the conditions obtaining now with 
the conditions existing then, it is enough to make one's 
heart swell with pride if he has had but the slightest 
part in helping or has made some little contribution 
to the tremendous achievement, scarcely believable, 

[159] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

of those who held the fondest hopes for the organ- 
ization. 

I shall not attempt to portray or even recite the 
wonderful transition and transformation of the min- 
ers from a position of docility, of poverty and misery 
into the full stature of manhood, conscious of your 
strength, wonderful in your achievements, and yet 
holding yourselves and your organization under such 
control that you have up to this time commanded the 
respect, the confidence and the admiration of every 
liberty-loving, humanity-loving American citizen. 

It is a privilege to be permitted, much less to be in- 
vited, to address this great convention. I found 
it gratifying that I could take the time from my other 
duties to come to Indianapolis and to say a word to 
you which I trust may be timely and helpful ; for in this 
great hour of the world's history it requires all the 
man power and all the brain power and all the wealth 
and all the sacrifices which may be necessary that not 
only liberty but that manhood shall prevail as the 
guiding thought of the world's progress. . 

It is a popular thought to discuss the question of 
war, and we are all of us compelled, whether we care 
or whether we do not, to concern ourselves with the 
fact that we are in war. We have had, perhaps, with- 
in the past few days, the first direct effect of our being 
in war; and if I have the time and the opportunity I 
shall address a few words to you expressive of my 
opinion upon that subject. But we have not other- 
wise realized the fact that we are at war. You men 
who know me know that I have been all of my sixty- 
seven years of life a pacifist until less than four years 

[160] 



ALWAYS THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM 

ago. I was willing to go to the fullest length that 
any man could think or devise to prevent an interna- 
tional war. I believed that the civilization of our 
time, I believed that the humanitarian spirit in the 
hearts and the minds of men, was sufficient to protect 
us against a struggle of this character. 

When we knew that the great scientists of the world 
were burning the midnight oil for the purpose of dis- 
covering any agency or application that would ease 
the pain or cure the diseases or prevent the ills of our 
fellow human beings, it seems almost appalling to 
think that over night the war could have occurred. 
But it came. The marauder, the modern autocrat, 
willed it that the peace of the world should be dis- 
turbed, that humanity should be stopped in its onward 
march toward a higher civilization. Everything was 
to be dominated as his autocratic, imperialistic and 
militaristic mind developed. Never in the history of 
the world was there a man or a group of men who 
had so thoroughly planned for the militaristic domi- 
nation of the world as was expressed by the dynasty 
and the group of the Imperial German Government 
when it made war, flagrantly, brutally and without 
the slightest consideration of the human side of the 
people of the world. 

Yes, the invasion of Belgium, the ravishing of that 
little country, the crushing of Serbia and Roumania, 
the great juggernaut of this great militaristic machine, 
going on and on and on, was brought about by that 
autocratic and militaristic government. Whatever 
the outcome of this titanic struggle, the pages of his- 
tory will record to the great honor of that little land, 

[161] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

Belgium, the wonderful protector of the human race, 
that it was Belgium that halted the onward march of 
militarism and gave the world time to breathe and at 
least prepare itself to meet, to check and drive back 
the invader. 

My thought comes back to the change that has come 
over the real pacifists of the world. I don't mean this 
lip service, I don't mean these anti-American demon- 
strations — I am speaking of those who were willing 
to sacrifice themselves that peace might be maintained. 
When the war dogs were let loose and it was shown 
that this tremendous preparation had been going on 
for over forty years, so far as I am concerned I am 
willing to declare here and now, quite freely and 
frankly, I threw my pacifism to the winds and there 
came the transformation from a pacifist to a fighting 
man. 

When Belgium checked the army of Germany the 
troops of France and England combined just held and 
moved the German army backward. That was not 
on the schedule for the militaristic campaign of the 
Kaiser. He was checked and he knew, his military 
advisers and commanders knew and know now, that 
as soon as they were checked it meant the beginning 
of the end, for it is writ in the stars that the God of 
truth and righteousness and justice will prevail. And 
then came the change. The policy of German states- 
manship was then to drag the United States into the 
war by any means ; hence the sinking of neutral ships, 
of innocent merchantmen, and the killing of men, 
women and children, upon the high seas. Without 
attempting further to elucidate, this killing of inno- 

[162] 



ALWAYS THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM 

cent men, women and children was on and the word 
pledged to our government broken, just as ruthlessly 
as was that pact between the governments of the whole 
world that Belgium's neutrality should be maintained 
at all hazards. As that treaty was torn to shreds as 
a scrap of paper, the pledge given to the United States 
by the German government that this rapine and mur- 
der would not be repeated, was broken without the 
slightest compunction. 

At last we were in the war, we were dragged into 
it; we could not keep out of it if we would. If we 
had not come to the assistance of the peoples repre- 
senting the democracies of Europe I have not the 
slightest hesitancy in believing that it meant the choice 
of going over to fight or having them come over here 
to fight. Four years ago when I had the great priv- 
ilege of being with you in your convention — to be 
exact, four years and three days — the only war of 
which any of us knew anything was the war in the 
convention. And I may be a bit scarred and wounded, 
but I am still in the ring. No one here or in the broad 
domain of our country imagined in January, 19 14, 
that within a few months the whole world 
would be in conflagration and countries at each oth- 
er's throats. Events have come and gone that were 
little dreamed of in our philosophy, and from that 
year up to the present time the world has been at war. 
We cannot be neutral ; there is no such thing as neu- 
trality in this war. You are for autocracy or democ- 
racy, there is no other choice for individuals or for 
nations. Spain, the Scandinavian countries and 
Switzerland are not neutral ; they may have proclaimed 

[163] ' 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

their neutrality, but they are profiting or cowed by 
the war, and hence their sympathies and their co- 
operation are given to either one or the other side. 

I do not want to assume the attitude of the great 
orator of the Continental Congress, but I cannot live 
when the whole world makes for un freedom. I 
counted it an honor, as I felt it my duty, some years 
ago to challenge the decision and the action of the 
courts because they denied me the right of honest, free 
expression. I took the chance to defend the princi- 
ples of freedom and suffered the indignity of having 
been sentenced twice to imprisonment for a year be- 
cause I dared maintain the right of free speech and 
free press. When I could not endure the gross injus- 
tice of taking from me and my fellows the right of 
freedom of expression, you can rest assured I pro- 
tested, and will protest again, any attempt to strangle 
the manhood and womanhood of the world to silence 
and failure or prevention of expression. 

I realize the contrast between the conditions of 
peace and those of war. The government of the 
United States, with singular unanimity, the sole con- 
stituted authority of our republic, decided to declare 
that we are at war with Germany and later with Aus- 
tria. There is no other way provided by which that 
action can be taken. That specific decision having 
been made that a state of war exists between America 
and her Allies against the imperial governments of 
Germany and Austria, everything that I can do to 
adjure my fellow workers and my fellow citizens to 
do to make the victory of democracy sure, I am going 
to advise, even if it be with my last breath. 

[164] 



ALWAYS THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM 

A month before war was declared a conference was 
held in the city of Washington in which the repre- 
sentatives of nearly all the national and international 
trade unions participated. In that conference a dec- 
laration was made and unanimously adopted.* 

Since then our country has been at war. We desired 
to place ourselves in a position where we could estab- 
lish the best possible relations with the government and 
the men and the women of our labor movement so that 
the greatest degree of cooperation and wholehearted 
support would be given on both sides. We have 
had agreements made between the governmental 
agencies and the representatives of our move- 
ment, so that in the struggle for freedom and democ- 
racy abroad we should not lose our freedom and de- 
mocracy at home. You have it in your own organ- 
ization, for your own honored former president, 
Brother John P. White, is in an influential, helpful 
position in one of the greatest governmental agencies 
in which the men of your industry are primarily af- 
fected. What is true in regard to him is equally true 
of nearly all industries of America. We propose not 
to surrender the standards of life and living during 
this struggle, except it be to save the Republic of the 
United States and not for private profit. We will 
make any sacrifice which may be necessary to make our 
triumphs sure, but we are not going to make any sac- 
rifices that shall fill the coffers of the rich beyond the 
plethoric conditions in which they even now are. 

If there was any evidence required to show the great 

*On page 289 of the appendix will be found the declaration 
of March 12, 1917, read by Mr. Gompers. 

[165] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

heart of the leader of the world's democracies, that evi- 
dence was given when the President of the United 
States visited the Buffalo convention of the American 
Federation of Labor and gave his great message to 
the hearts and the conscience of the workers, of the 
masses of the people of the whole world. That mes- 
sage thrilled every human being capable of any sensi- 
bility or feeling. It was wonderful ! It was a pledge 
of the common concept for humanity. The world is 
changing. This war, upon which first I looked with 
horror beyond expression, I regard now as a rejuve- 
nation of mankind and the establishment of a higher 
concept of justice for all time to come. It means that 
all great transformations in the interest of humanity 
must have a baptism of blood, and the blood that is 
now so freely flowing is the baptism, not of this war, 
but of its transformation from a war to a crusade in 
the interests of humanity. 

In this present day condition in which we find criti- 
cisms and attacks being sown broadcast anywhere and 
everywhere it is timely for labor men to consider lest 
we, too, may be swamped by passionate appeals or by 
misleading purposes. It is a tremendous thing, it is 
an almost unbelievable task, to work out the military, 
the naval, the industrial, the commercial affairs of a 
country which were based upon democratic ideas and 
ideals, upon a peace footing, and to expect that this de- 
mocracy should transform the whole field of human 
endeavor from a peace basis to a war footing without 
making some mistakes. We would sacrifice our lives 
rather than give up our democratic institutions; but 
bear in mind that democracy is likely to make mis- 

[166] 



ALWAYS THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM 

takes. These mistakes are the penalties we pay for 
the exercise of the principles of freedom and democ- 
racy. And that applies to our own organization as 
well as to our government. If we want to have de- 
mocracy we should be willing to pay some of the pen- 
alties of democracy because of our mistakes. 

I have no brief to speak for the administration of 
the government of the United States or of any of its 
representatives, but this I do know, and am willing to 
voluntarily attest to it, that they are prompted by the 
great purpose, first, that America shall win in this 
war, and second to do justice to our people during the 
struggle. They are men of great mental power and 
activity. To think that this great transition could 
take place without some mistakes being made is to 
expect the impossible. 

*1 am not going to find any excuse for mistakes. I 
have in advance said that they are part of our very 
lives and system. As a matter of fact, who could 
have made a greater mistake than the one-man power, 
the Kaiser of Germany, in starting this thing he will 
never be able to finish ? With all his plans and all his 
aids, he made that mistake. They were on the road 
to great industrial and scientific and commercial suc- 
cess in Germany ; they had an enviable position in the 
world's affairs, but they wanted to establish their mili- 
tary, imperialistic, autocratic influence and govern- 
ment over the whole world I have not sipoken German 
in this last couple of years. I acquired the language 
when I was working in the factory, and I am going to 
use a term that has been used by the Germans — 
"Deutschland ueber alles" — Germany over all. That 

[167] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

is not an expression of the day before yesterday, or 
three or five or ten years ago ; it is a motto coined over 
forty years ago — "Germany over all." My friends, 
place one military dictator, if you please, at the head 
of the affairs of our government and he will make as 
many if not more mistakes than have been made by 
the administrators of our affairs, though they be ci- 
vilians. And how would the workers fare in the 
struggle in the meantime? 

Even the order issued a few days ago I regard 
as an absolute necessity. You know there is now a dis- 
cussion to repeal or modify the Sherman Anti-Trust 
law. I am not going to offer any excuse for the rail- 
roads, they have been lax so long, but the Sherman 
Anti-Trust law forbade them to do what now the di- 
rector-general of the railroads has the right to do. 
The jam had occurred and was increasing and some- 
thing had to be done to relieve the situation. If the 
ice king has interfered there can be no help for that. 
I think there is one mistake in the making, and I trust 
it will be changed or modified. I refer to the closing 
of the industrial and commercial plants of our coun- 
try one additional day each week. I think it is a mis- 
take to have a whole day such as Monday idle, involv- 
ing from Saturday afternoon until Tuesday morning. 
I believe if the order were changed so that instead of 
there being ten, nine or eight hours as a day's work, 
the same, power should be exercised and a universal 
seven-hour day proclaimed during the war period, we 
would have practically the same results in the con- 
servation of fuel and all other needful commodities; 
there would be the same conservation and it would not 

[168] 



ALWAYS THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM 

do violence to the history, the traditions, the work and 
the practical operation of industry and commerce. I 
trust that the suggestion may find lodgment somewhere 
and bring about that change; but if it does not, I am 
going to obey like a soldier of America, I am going to 
yield my judgment to the judgment and the actions of 
the men in whose hands the destinies of our Republic 
are placed. Because the suggestion or advice I may of- 
fer may not be accepted, does not entitle me during 
the war to balk or refuse to cooperate with my fellow 
citizens and with my government. 

I think I ought to make reference to something 
which is arresting our attention and the attention of 
the whole world. I refer to the present situation as 
it exists in Russia. We have all done our share to 
be helpful to the Russian people. We were all en- 
thused when the revolutionists overthrew the Czar 
of that country, established a revolutionary govern- 
ment and fought on and on until there came upon the 
scene these people who call themselves the Bolsheviki. 
The exact meaning of that term is not known to every 
one. It is simply the Russian word for what we would 
call Maximalists, those who want the maximum of 
anything and everything and will not compromise or 
yield to anything, will not accept anything but the ut- 
termost, the maximum. What is the maximum? All 
that you have dreamed, all that I have dreamed, all 
that any one has dreamed and hoped for, that must 
be accomplished and put into operation at once or else 
we refuse to live and be with our neighbors of dif- 
ferent judgment ; we refuse to accept the natural law 
of growth and development; we refuse to permit in- 

[169] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

dustry to be carried on to its fullest extent, so that 
as in the movements of labor in England and the 
United States, there may be obtained something bet- 
ter, to make life and work better to-day than yester- 
day, better to-morrow than to-day and better each 
succeeding day, so that every day, to-morrow and to- 
morrow, and to-morrow's to-morrow shall each be a 
better day than the day which is past. 

They refuse to permit such a growth, such a de- 
velopment, but want it all; and, like the dog in the 
fable who, having a bone and seeing the shadow in the 
water and the shadow being larger than the bone it- 
self, dropped the bone and jumped for the sha- 
dow and lost both. To expect that the world shall 
establish the highest ideals of ownership, of property, 
of work, of life by edict and without the transition 
from stage to stage is like expecting an infant just 
crawling and beginning to walk to enter into a mara- 
thon race as a contender for victory. The result of 
that activity of the Bolsheviki is this, that because of 
their supposed radicalism they have lost all. As a na- 
tion which does not function, an army that will not 
fight, a people that for the time being cannot act to- 
gether through this Bolsheviki, the people of Russia 
are crawling upon their bellies and asking for mercy 
at the hand of the modern assassin, the Kaiser of 
Germany. 

Through the Bolsheviki the whole field of opera- 
tions is in greater danger. The Czar of Russia in his 
palmiest days could do no worse than the Bolsheviki 
have done. The Czar turned his soldiers upon the mem- 
bers of the Duma of Russia, and the Bolsheviki have 

[170] 



ALWAYS THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM 

sent their armed soldiers and sailors to disperse the 
Constituent Assembly, the representatives elected by 
the people of Russia; in other words, my friends, the 
attempt at constitutional government in Russia, where 
the people could assert themselves, has been at the 
point of the gun and the bayonet driven out of the hall 
of legislation. The Bolsheviki who dropped their guns 
when facing the Kaiser's troops turned them upon 
their own representative government. 

My friends, the reason of that movement, the ter- 
rific situation, the terrible situation in which the peo- 
ple of Russia and the government of Russia are placed 
is a reminder to us, too, not only in our own country, 
but in our labor movement because we know that we 
have the Bolsheviki right in the United States! 
These men, if they had their way, would drive the 
United States government and the people into the same 
wretched, miserable, poltroon position. If they had 
their way the trades unions of our country would not 
be in existence. You know as well as I do that there 
was one organization of labor in the United States — 
I prefer not to mention its name — which was a Max- 
imalist organization — they would have nothing but 
the most and would not consent to anything less. And 
now it hasn't the power to make even a decent show- 
ing, much less a good fight. If the extremists in the 
labor movement of America had their way the United 
Mine Workers of America might be known as a name 
but not as a fact; it would not have one of its repre- 
sentative men sitting in council with the governmental 
agencies in order to determine the conditions of in- 
dustry and the life and the work of the toilers. 

[HI] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

You have not secured all to which you are entitled, 
certainly not ! My desire and demand upon society are 
for more and more and more, and never stopping in 
that constant driving movement for more; but I do 
know something of the limitations of our power, of 
our people, of our own selfishness and altruism, of 
our generosity and our weakness, and I say to you, my 
friends, let the voice of the men with experience, the 
men charged with the responsibility of carrying out 
the interests and the will and the welfare of the miners 
of America be heard — do not fail to heed their sug- 
gestions and advice. I am not discussing, nor have 
I in mind, any question of a controversial character 
in your convention ; I am speaking of a general policy 
which experience has demonstrated. The time was not 
always when the miners were a great power. Every 
inch of effort and success was at the expense of great 
sacrifice, of tremendous expenditure. Don't throw 
that all to the winds. 

What is it that Shakespeare put into the mouth 
of Friar Lawrence in his advice to Romeo when he 
rushes off? "Wisely and slow; they stumble that run 
fast." Men of the United Mine Workers of America, 
make such changes as may be essential to your con- 
tinual progress, but for the sake of yourselves, for the 
sake of the men who are going into the mining in- 
dustry hereafter, for the sake of their wives and chil- 
dren and yours, for the honor of the memory of the 
men who have done so much to help build up this won- 
derful monument of honor and of strength, do not 
throw their experience to the winds. 

[112] 



ALWAYS THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM 

We do not know what is coming. This war is mak- 
ing changes every day; this war is brightening up the 
minds of men. Men think quicker, act quicker, con- 
ceive better, execute greater than at any time in the 
history of our country — and, I believe I am justified 
in saying, in the history of the world. New concepts 
are coming; the blood in men's veins is tingling; hu- 
man brotherhood, in spite of sacrifices, is being held 
as the great ideal ; the relations between man and man 
are changed; wealth, possessions are no longer re- 
garded as of great importance. The thing that is im- 
portant is human effort, cooperation, service to the 
government, service to the people, service to make 
life the better worth living; and this war, transformed 
into a crusade, when it is all over will have brought 
a brighter and a better day for all. The sacrifice is 
great, but who looks with regret upon the sacrifices 
made by our forefathers in establishing the Republic 
of the United States and achieving for the first time 
in the history of the world a declaration that there are 
certain inalienable rights and that among them is the 
right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? 
That was said for America and its echo went through- 
out the world. 

The war now, this crusade, is for the establishment 
of that principle throughout the world — the people of 
Germany included. Who regrets the sacrifices that 
were made to abolish human slavery? Who is not 
proud of the fights that were made that liberty should 
obtain? Who regrets that the United States entered 
into a war with Spain to wrest the Island of Cuba from 
the tyrannical rule of the Spanish monarchy? And 

[173] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

so with this fight, so with this struggle, the future will 
regard any man in any walk of life who did something 
to make for the freedom, for the justice, for the democ- 
racy of the world in our time as a benefactor. The 
world will rise up and call him blessed for the part he 
has performed and the service he has rendered. 

Now is the time that tries men's souls; now is the 
time to give service ; now is the time when we should 
see to it that we try to uphold the great labor move- 
ment of our country. It is in accord with and is heart- 
ily pledged to the cause of this democratic Republic 
of ours, the Republic of the United States; it is com- 
mitted almost unanimously to the great cause for which 
the world is now bleeding and which it will win. We 
shall not lose, we cannot lose. The whole history of 
the world, the songs of the poets, the dreams of the 
philosophers, the work of the toilers, the service of 
mankind, the scars and the battles and the sufferings 
of the past are all thrown in spirit in the balance, and 
the men and women of America, the men and women 
of fighting England, the men and women of gallant 
France, the men and women of outraged Belgium, the 
men and women of devastated Serbia and Roumania — 
the spirit of it all goes forth in one grand acclaim, 
victory and triumph for labor and democracy, the es- 
tablishment of the universal brotherhood of mam 
That is the cry; that is the slogan; that is the shib- 
boleth which will win for the world in the most 
glorious battle and triumph for human justice. 



[174] 



AMERICA IS AN IDEAL 

America is not merely a name. It is not merely a land. 
It is not merely a country, nor is it merely a continent. 
America is a symbol; it is an ideal, the hopes of the world 
can be expressed in the ideal — America. 

Gathering at Lexington Avenue Theatre, New York City. 
Washington's birthday — February 22nd, ipi8. 

1 BELIEVE that in our country we have the great- 
est opportunities existing in any country upon the 
face of the globe. America is not perfect; the Repub- 
lic of the United States is not perfect ; it has the imper- 
fections of the human; and inasmuch as we are not 
perfect, we have not been able to make a perfect, 
democratic Republic ; but it is the best country on the 
face of the earth. 

America is not merely a name. It is not merely a 
land. It is not merely a country, nor is it merely a 
continent. America is a symbol; it is an ideal; the 
hopes of the world can be expressed in the ideal — 
America. The man in America, with the opportunities 
afforded, with the right of expression, with the right 
of determination, with the right of creating a political, 
revolution by well-ordered methods, who will not or 
does not appreciate that it is his duty to stand by such 
a country in such stress and in such a storm, who is 
unwilling to stand up and be counted as a man in this 

[175] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

fight for the maintenance of these ideals — is unworthy 
of the privilege of living in this country. 

I have no quarrel with the man or the group of 
men who differ with me, or the course which I pur- 
sue, in anything. I doubt that there is any one who 
welcomes expressions of dissent or disapproval more 
than I do. I am willing to battle with him mentally, 
argumentatively, in any honorable way that is pro- 
vided among self-respecting men and women. Con- 
structive criticism is of the greatest benefit to those 
who are criticized. It is the nagger, the mean, con- 
temptible, nagging one that has no purpose other 
than negative and destructive that is unworthy the 
consideration of decent men and women. 

Who declared war in Germany? Was it even that 
mugwumpery called the Reichstag? No; not even 
that. But who declared war in Germany? Was it 
the people of Germany? No. It was the Kaiser and 
his immediate military clique. That autocratic clique 
by one accord determined that the time for which 
they had been planning had arrived, and then was 
the time to strike the blow. Now, you have no need to 
enter into a full discussion of all the matters which 
may be of vital interest, and no doubt you know them 
just as well, if not better, than I do, but here is the 
point : Jn the United States of America it was not a 
Kaiser, a King, or even the President of the United 
States who declared war; it was the Congress of the 
United States, the men and women elected by the peo- 
ple of the United States. There must be lodged some- 
where in Government the power to declare that its 
life is endangered and that, therefore, it has the right 

[176] 



AMERICA IS AN IDEAL 

to strike a blow in the defense of its country. In our 
Republic that authority is vested in the Congress of 
the United States — the Congress elected by the people 
of the United States, the Congress elected, in many 
States, by the votes of the men and the women of 
those States. . . . 

In truth, the state of war existed from January, 
1 91 6, when the attacks were made upon our industrial 
plants and our transportation lines, the murdering of 
our men and women and our children in cold blood. 
If that did not constitute a state of war I would like 
to know what did. The point that I want to make clear 
is this: That it was not an autocrat, it was not the 
President, but that it was the representatives of the 
people, elected by the people to the Congress of the 
United States, the only authority recognized by the 
Constitution of our country, who realized the situa- 
tion as it was and declared that a state of war ex- 
isted between our Republic and the Imperial German 
Government. That body authorized the President to 
use all the available means and all the forces of the 
country to carry into effect and purpose the resolution 
of the Congress of the United States, and to make 
good this declaration that the democracy of the United 
States is not impotent or incompetent to defend itself. 

Until the only authority in the country had de- 
cided the question whether we should recognize that 
war existed or not, until that declaration was made it 
was the privilege, as it was the right of every man 
to express his own view whether we should recognize 
this fact and go to war or not. But when the con- 
stituted authority in our Republic declared war, that 

[177] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

was a decision of the people of this country, and from 
that decision there is and can be no appeal. To fol- 
low the thought that it is now permissible to discuss 
whether we should continue in the war or to retreat 
from it reminds me of the situation as it now exists 
in Russia. If the so-called radicals of America would 
have had their way, you would find in our United 
States the same condition as now exists in Russia. 

I am rather fond of life. I have had 68 years of 
it, and I am not tired of it at all. I want to live. I 
do not know of anything better than living. But I do 
not want to* live when I can not maintain my own self- 
respect. Indeed, I feel that I could not live in the at- 
mosphere of unf reedom. There have been at least two 
occasions in my life when I was threatened with impris- 
onment; on two different occasions, and each for a 
year, because I undertook to express my judgment, and 
we were then at peace, not at war. But I undertook to 
express my opinion as an American citizen against a de- 
cree issued by one of our courts in a private contro- 
versy between two interests. I merely mention it, as I 
was willing to take a chance, whatever that may mean, 
for the maintenance of the principles of freedom of 
expression and freedom of the press. 

So, just imagine: — it does not take much to see the 
point at issue — if the German militarist system could 
win — it can not, but if it could win, how would that 
victory be accomplished, or what would its immediate 
result be? I know that we have been living in the 
thought that we are so far removed from the whole 
world that we are perfectly safe. But if it were pos- 

[178] 



AMERICA IS AN IDEAL 

sible for the German militarist machine to be so ef- 
ficient that it could conquer France and England, the 
first result of that conquest would be, without ques- 
tion, the taking over from France and England their 
combined navies. Without taking over these navies, 
as the result of German conquest, she could not be 
the complete winner; and imagine, with the military 
forces, the navies of England and France, and her 
vessels of commerce and transports, what would be- 
come of the vaunted safety of the home and fireside 
of the American people? 

Referring to a remark made by Harry Lauder, and 
of which I was so glad to hear our honored Secre- 
tary speak, he said, in speaking to a lot of our boys 
in the camp: "Don't you for a moment imagine that 
you are going to send your troops over to save France 
or to save England. When you send your troops over 
you will be saving yourselves. Either you must fight 
over there or you will fight over here." 

To me this war has quite a different meaning than 
almost any other war in history of which I have read. 
It began through the machinations of the German 
Kaiser and in the splendid responses made by France 
and England and Belgium. In Prussia they were all 
exulting, but when the Republic of the United States 
entered into this world struggle it ceased to be a war 
and became at once a crusade for freedom and justice 
and liberty. I hold it to be the duty of every man to 
give every ounce of energy in fighting, in producing, 
in helping in any way that he can, that this crusade 
shall be a triumph for the world. If we may not be 
able to abolish war for all time, at least let us make 

[179] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

the conditions such that a war of this character may 
never again occur, or at least shall be long deferred. 

For years and years the workers of America, realiz- 
ing the position in which we are placed in this most 
favored country of ours, pressed home upon the 
agencies of government, the agencies of industry, the 
agencies of all activities, that inasmuch as the workers 
performed so large a service for society and civiliza- 
tion the human side of the workers should receive the 
highest consideration, and that no agency of govern- 
ment or of industry should be constituted without a 
representative of the workers as part of that agency. 

I never have asked anything for myself. I have no 
favor to ask. I have no personal pleas to make. I 
speak for a cause. I speak for the masses of the work- 
ers as well as the masses of all our people. For, no 
matter, the meanest of all of them, I consider it my 
duty and privilege to say a word for him, even when 
perhaps he might repudiate me. But, as the result of 
this war or crusade, this principle for which Labor has 
been contending has found recognition in the depart- 
ments of Government. 

My friends, do you know how thoroughly in sym- 
pathy with the high and noble thought and work and 
associations of the labor movement are the members of 
the President's Cabinet and the President of the 
United States himself ? That has come and it is com- 
ing to a larger extent with every development of our 
time. Does any one think that when peace shall have 
come again to our beloved country and to the peoples 
of the world the representatives of these various 
agencies will be in conflict? Surely not. The princi- 

[180] 



AMERICA IS AN IDEAL 

pie is recognized. Hence this means while we are 
fighting for democracy and against autocracy, in 
France and soon in Belgium and then into Germany, 
then in the meantime we are fighting to maintain 
democracy at home. 

Let me say to you that, talking of international con- 
ferences with representatives of the enemy countries, 
we are not going to permit ourselves to be lulled into 
a fancied security and, under the guise of radicalism, 
go back a hundred years. Why, the Kaiser's minions 
would not give a passport to any one unless he would 
carry out the policy of the autocracy of Germany. 

Then, to meet in council with these men, gaining 
from us our confidence, swerving us from the path 
of duty, trying to influence us that the Governments 
of these democracies are, after all, only capitalistic, 
I have said, and I say it in the name of the American 
labor movement — the convention of which in No- 
vember declared it unalterably, the executive council 
of which, in session at Washington last week, affirmed 
it in most emphatic terms, and the American Alliance 
for Labor and Democracy reaffirmed it by the resolu- 
tions presented here this evening — we all say in es- 
sence: You can't talk peace with us now; you can't 
talk international conferences with us now. Either 
you smash your autocracy, or, by the gods, we will 
smash it for you! Before you talk peace terms, be- 
fore you bring about international conferences, get 
out of France. Get back from Belgium, back to Ger- 
many, and then we will talk peace. 

One of the great causes of this war was the obses- 
sion of this German military caste that democracies 

[181] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

are impotent and inefficient; that France was a sort 
of democracy, with an army that was in a way in- 
efficient because of the long-standing contention of 
Alsace-Lorraine. Germany knew that if she went to 
war she would have a rather hard fight with France, 
but surely would conquer her. She had an extreme 
contempt for the democracy of Great Britain and for 
any army Great Britain could raise. To the German 
mind, as it has been tutored for this last half a cen- 
tury, there is nothing efficient in government un- 
less it is directed by an autocratic head. The same 
contempt the Germans had for America. They be- 
lieved us to be such devotees and lovers of the al- 
mighty dollar that we could never stand for an ideal 
and make sacrifices for its achievement. That is the 
great mistake which autocracies have ever made — they 
do not know. They have never known that once touch 
the heart, the conscience, and the spirit of the demo- 
cratic peoples, they will make more sacrifices than any 
subjects under compulsion. So we find ourselves in 
this war, in this crusade. 

A month before the war was declared, with some 
degree of prescience, the executive council of the 
American Federation of Labor called a conference of 
the representative officials of the American labor move- 
ment, and there a great discussion ensued, and there 
a declaration was finally adopted.* 

That declaration was adopted by a unanimous vote 
a month before the declaration of war. The con- 
vention of the American Federation of Labor in No- 

* On page 289 of the appendix will be found the declaration of 
March 12. 1917, read by Mr. Gompers. 

[182] 



AMERICA IS AN IDEAL 

vember, 19 17, unanimously approved that declaration. 
It was to that convention that the President of the 
United States, that great leader and spokesman of the 
democracies of the world, came and delivered a mes- 
sage to Labor, and through that body to the great 
masses of the people of America, and through them 
to the liberty loving men and women of the whole 
world. 

There is not anything that will contribute so much 
to winning this war as unity of spirit as well as 
unity of action among the people of our country to 
make, if necessary, the supreme sacrifice that freedom 
shall live. I know that it may mean much loss and 
many heartaches, but we know that there were sacri- 
fices and heartaches among the men and the women 
of our revolutionary times. 

Who is there in America to-day who looks back with 
regret on the sacrifices made when the Declaration of 
Independence was coined for the world and a new na- 
tion created? Who regrets that any one belonging to 
them, no matter how near or how remote, sacrificed 
his life and his all that America should be born? 
Our Civil War, when the struggle was for the main- 
tenance of the Union and the abolition of human slav- 
ery, who among the gallant men on both sides, or 
either side, now regrets that the fight was made and 
the sacrifices borne in order to make good that this 
Nation is one and indivisible and that on its shores and 
under its flag slavery is forever abolished? Who 
doubts that? Our war with Spain, small though it 
was, meant sacrifices. It meant Cuba free and inde- 
pendent. Is there a man or woman in this audience 

[183] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

or in this country who regrets the sacrifice that was 
made that Cuba might be made free? 

So the men and the women of the future will regard 
this struggle as we now look upon those struggles to 
which I have just referred. They will call us blessed, 
every man and every woman, who has given something 
to this great cause of human justice and freedom, to 
feel the satisfaction, the exultation, the exaltation of 
youth and energy renewed in them in a great cause, 
the greatest that has ever been presented to the peo- 
ples of any country and in any time. It is a privilege 
to live in this time and to help in this common fight. 

With all my heart and spirit I appeal to my fellow 
citizens, to my fellow workers, to make this one great 
slogan, the watchword from now on until triumph 
shall perch upon our arms : "Unity, solidarity, energy, 
and the will to fight and to win." 



[184] 



LABOR'S FUNCTION IN WAR TIME 

The human side must be considered in every question in 
which our people and our country are affected. 

At the Convention of the National Lecturers' Association, 
Washington, D. C, April nth, iqi8. 

J THINK that epitomizes the whole subject, and 
•■■ whatever frills or furbelows may be woven to sur- 
round it are not going to make the matter at all 
clearer. The question as it appeals to me suggests the 
thought that there is in the minds of some — the sus- 
picion that Labor is not functioning in the war, and 
therefore it is necessary that some one should say 
something as to whether it does or not. 

With us there have been no false notions from the 
beginning of the European war. Those who were 
abreast of the times and had something like an under- 
standing of events national and international, those 
who had undertaken to learn, either at first hand or 
otherwise, the philosophy, if I may so dignify it, un- 
derlying the German mind and the German activity, 
knew then that the aim of German thought was to 
dominate the world. 

Now, no one could find fault with the effort of the 
German people in endeavoring to control by intellectual 
force, by the power of brain, science and understand- 
ing in all the arts, in industry, in commerce; and it 

[185] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

was to the great credit of the people of at least our 
own country, that we were appreciative of the great 
intellectual development of the people of Germany. But 
somehow or other, there were a few of us among the 
men of Labor, who understood that Germans and Ger- 
many were not only exercising this great power and 
influence over all the world, but that there was being 
created by them a philosophy of economics and soci- 
ology that undertook to blunt the minds of the people 
of the whole world. 

Whether designedly or not no one can now say, but 
truth requires it to be stated that the philosophy of 
the Marxian Socialism was nothing more or less 
than the attempt of German autocratic power from 
above to control the individuality of the people. It 
was and is in economics and sociology the reflex of the 
imperial form of government of Germany, presum- 
ably based upon the people, not, however, with the 
initiative of the people controlling the government, 
but with the government controlling the people. 

For years and years a propaganda was carried on 
in every country on the face of the globe. Among the 
last to be impregnated with that virus were England 
and the United States. There was not an avenue 
through which the expression of the labor movement 
of America could percolate into the minds of the Ger- 
man people or the people of the other continental 
countries. 

The Socialist parties of Germany did not create the 
Socialist parties of these other European countries and 
of the United States; the German Socialists' propa- 
ganda established German branches in these other 

[186] 



LABOR'S FUNCTION IN WAR TIME 

countries and in the United States! They published 
their newspapers, particularly in the German lan- 
guage; when they attempted to establish an English 
paper, for years and years they never succeeded, and 
one or two of those papers now existing subsist upon 
the subsidies and support of the German Socialist 
press. 

The labor movement of America was interpreted 
and written about to the European countries, particu- 
larly through Germany, by the agents of the German 
Socialists. The efforts made by the American labor 
movement to secure improvement in the condition of 
the workers were belittled and perverted in the reports 
to the Socialist press, and so communicated to the 
readers of the Socialist press in Germany and other 
European countries. Our movement was decried, our 
achievements belittled, our aims ridiculed, and our 
men abused, insulted and misrepresented. Indeed, so 
far did this propaganda go that, consciously or un- 
consciously, the great trusts in the United States were 
playing into the hands of that game ! First, the ship- 
ping companies and the trusts were combined to keep 
a channel wide open between several of the southern 
European countries and the ports of the United States. 
The condition of those people thus brought here, lured 
here, was but little better, if as good, as it had been 
in their own countries. They had less freedom here, 
for they were under the dominating eye of the super- 
intendent, foreman, sub- foreman, or some sub-stratum 
officer ! They had industrial serfdom here, when they 
had perhaps just a little bit of a farm with the free 
air and the sunshine in their own countries ; they were 

[187] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

paid miserably and treated worse; they had to pay 
tribute in advance to some petty foreman in order to 
get a job, and it was to the foreman's financial ad- 
vantage to see that the turn-over was greater than 
necessary in order that he might get his tribute. 

But quite in addition to this, newspapers, daily or 
weekly, were encouraged to be issued and printed in 
the language or the languages of the respective coun- 
tries of a large number of the employees; and 
then in those newspapers, subsidized by the ship- 
ping companies and by the trusts, could be preached 
all the radicalism, so called, that they pleased. They 
could advocate socialism, anarchism, or any other spec- 
ulative philosophy so long as they roundly lambasted 
the American labor movement and its officers. For 
these corporations knew that so long as they could 
arouse bitterness and antagonism and prejudice against 
the representatives of the American labor movement, 
so long as they could call into question our motives and 
our honesty, they had the men under their own power. 
They would encourage these newspapers to preach the 
gospel of the "sweet by-and-by" if they could only 
prevent the workers from realizing that they were 
living in the bitter "now-and-now" ; and hence the 
great difficulty which we experienced in trying to 
reach the minds and to obtain the confidence of these 
workers, the confidence and the respect to which we 
were justly entitled. 

i And this Socialist press in German and other foreign 
languages was the means to propagate this philosophy 
of misery, to propagate the dream of internationalism, 
based upon the idea that German power, German mili- 

[188] 



LABOR'S FUNCTION IN WAR TIME 

tarism, would be maintained for the purpose of pre- 
venting international war, while, at the same time that 
same Socialist press was preaching to the peoples of 
the other countries of the world the doctrine that they 
need not fear Germany or German military power. 
"What you and your countries should do is to preach 
the gospel of internationalism, anti-militarism and anti- 
patriotism; we will see that the peace of the world 
shall be maintained," declared German Socialists 
and Socialist philosophers and the people of the coun- 
tries of the world outside of Germany believed in 
them. That propaganda had gone on for more than 
forty years. We believed it; we were all of us lulled 
into a fancied security. Then they undertook to 
preach the gospel of the immediate recognition of 
the universality of the brotherhood of man, and so 
our peoples and our countries were comparatively easy 
prey, at least supposedly so, in the minds of German 
efficiency and German militarism and German imperi- 
alism. We were unprepared; we did not dare to 
dream that such a conflagration as this would set the 
world afire ; but it has come. 

There is one thing upon which Germany did not 
count. She believed that, after all, there is only one 
efficient method for the conduct of any of the affairs 
of life, and that that method is autocracy, — power 
from the top to direct, and all others obediently to 
perform. There is one thing that this philosophy 
holds out of the accounting, — that once the conscience 
and the hearts of a free democratic people are touched, 
there arises a unity of spirit and action, which au- 
tocratic domination and efficiency cannot withstand, 

[1891 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

and before which it must quail. And that is what has 
come. 

It is the common understanding of all who know, 
that it is the American Federation of Labor that 
for more than thirty-five years has given its whole- 
hearted effort to support the principles of free- 
dom and democracy as against socialism, slavery and 
despotism. It is the American Federation of Labor 
which, from the beginning of this international war, 
had the perception, as well as the courage, to declare 
its position in unmistakable terms, and now, in the 
crisis into which we have flung ourselves, or rather, 
more truly speaking, into which we have been dragged, 
the American labor movement is true to its history. 
It is true to the traditions of Labor, true to the long 
struggle of the masses, groping in the beginning, grop- 
ing, struggling and sacrificing in order that some of 
the burdens placed upon the backs of the toilers shall 
be relieved, until in our time the whole conception of 
the laborer has changed. The worker is no longer 
regarded, nor would he permit himself to be regarded, 
as typified by the "Man with the Hoe" ; he stands, not 
with bent back or receding forehead, — no, not with 
bent back and receding forehead, but in the full stature 
of manhood, equal with all people of our country. 

Quite apart from our loyalty to our Republic and 
the great cause in which it is engaged, this very dif- 
ference of concept is to be fought out. It must be set- 
tled whether the workers shall be driven back into the 
centuries of darkness and misery and almost despair, 
with back bent under the lash and perhaps the receding 
forehead returning with generations, or whether the 

[190] 



LABOR'S FUNCTION IN WAR TIME 

toilers of the world shall be, in addition to producers, 
men, with living hopes, living aspirations for a higher 
and a better day. 

We have from the beginning of the war performed 
our duty whole-heartedly, without causing any reflec- 
tions or making any insinuations against those in other 
walks of life. I think if these had had less care for 
private profiteering and more care for our country and 
our people and our cause, there would be less incon- 
sistency. Only a few weeks ago, or rather about two 
months ago, there were about twenty-five hundred 
men who had struck work. It was regrettable. The 
difficulty was quickly adjusted, and the officers of the 
organization exerted all the influence and power that 
they could, in order that the men would return to work. 
The men did resume work, but the press of the coun- 
try lambasted the workers of America as though they 
had all been slackers and cowards and traitors, when, 
as a matter of fact, there were then more than five mil- 
lions of American workers engaged in war work, and 
there was not a word of commendation as to their 
service. 

Through the instrumentality of our movement, the 
American Federation of Labor, we have pressed home 
upon the government of the United States, as we have 
in the affairs of industry and commerce and trans- 
portation, this concept, — that there is not anything in 
all the activities of our country, local, state, national, 
or international, into which the human element does 
not enter, that the human side must be considered in 
every question in which our people and our country 
are affected, and that hence it is necessary to have rep- 

[191] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

reservation of the workers in every agency of govern- 
ment and of industry. We have had larger representa- 
tion and recognition of this character within this past 
year, — beginning four years ago, but within the last 
year — than at any time in the history of our country, 
or perhaps of the whole world. The Council of Na- 
tional Defense, the Advisory Commission, the War 
Industries Board, the Shipping Board, the Wage Ad- 
justment Board, in all of them, are representatives of 
labor to help determine the conditions and the terms, 
wages, and hours of labor. 

The Committee on Labor of the Council of National 
Defense, with its various sub-committees, has con- 
cerned itself with the question of labor standards — 
hours of labor and wages, sanitary conditions and 
housing. It was our committee which first brought 
last year to the attention of the Council of National 
Defense, and of the country, the terrific condition 
in which we were all placed by reason of the fact that 
the workers had no place where they could rest, where 
they could sleep, where they could go after their hard 
day's work was completed, and that if they did not 
have a place to sleep, they would be unfit and unwill- 
ing to work, in fact, would not and could not work. 

The agreements entered into between the representa- 
tives of the Government of the United States, in its 
various departments, and the organizations of the 
workers, have been made public generally. There was 
a committee of five representing the employers, ap- 
pointed by the employers' associations ; a committee of 
five of workmen appointed by the president of the 
American Federation of Labor. Each of these two 

[192] 



LABOR'S FUNCTION IN WAR TIME 

groups selected a representative of the general public 
as their legal adviser. The employers' group selected 
Mr. William H. Taft, and the workers' group selected 
Mr. Frank P. Walsh. An agreement has been reached 
between these two bodies based on the fundamental 
principles of employment and the relationship between 
employer and employee. A permanent board of arbi- 
tration has been appointed by the President of the 
United States. That great leader of thought, and 
speech, and democracy has issued a proclamation put- 
ting the agreement into effect as a war measure to 
endure during the period of the war. 

I have learned since my entrance into this hall that 
an effort is being made by means of a bill now before 
Congress to make it unlawful, and stigmatizing it as 
criminal, punishable with high fines and long terms of 
imprisonment, for any workman to engage in a strike. 
May I say this — I think that I have indicated clearly, 
and can show more fully and conclusively, that the aim 
and effort of American workers are to continue work 
without interruption except as rest and recuperation 
may be necessary. But I say this to all whom it may 
concern — that nothing will do more to create resent- 
ment than to make it unlawful for men to stop work. 
Thus far we have done wonderfully well. Thus far 
there has been no serious interruption of industry or 
commerce or transportation. Thus far the good in- 
fluences of the representative men and women in the 
labor movement of our country have been effective, 
but once take away the voluntary influence which we 
may be able to exert, and say thajt we have no power, 
no influence of a voluntary character, and you have' 

[193] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

taken away every instrument which we have been en- 
abled to employ in order to gain the good will and the 
voluntary, continued service of the workers of 
America. 

Let me add this : No one has done more than the 
representatives of the American labor movement to 
prevent the propaganda of Germanism from succeed- 
ing in interrupting the industries of our country. In 
some instances the men have been urged, where a 
cessation of work would have been justifiable under 
ordinary circumstances, to be patient and again be 
patient, even to straining a point, in order that pro- 
duction may not be interrupted. I say this, as I have 
on previous occasions declared, that it is possible that 
you may make a stoppage of work, a strike, unlawful, 
but you are not going to stop men from striking ; you 
will make men law-breakers in addition to strikers! 
Why is it necessary for the enactment of such a law? 
If all the voluntary agencies had proven a failure; if 
there were no prospect of even greater continued pro- 
duction by reason of the last agreement which has 
been reached and to which I have just referred, why 
then there might be even some excuse. But to-day 
there is absolutely none, and I give the warning of a 
patriotic American citizen to our Congress not to 
commit the folly of enacting such a law! 

I want to say something now wholly out of the 
order of reasoning and of sequence, but I cannot help 
bringing this to your attention. We have seen what 
has transpired in Russia within these past few months. 
No lover of liberty, no lover of mankind, can look 
upon that scene, even in the far distance, in his imag- 

[194] 



LABOR'S FUNCTION IN WAR TIME 

ination or in his reading, without a feeling of great 
regret and compassion. Whether the people of Rus- 
sia come back in this war or not, one thing is assured ; 
out of a spirit of humanitarianism, we must help the 
people as best we can. And we will try to do it. If 
there had been in Russia a labor movement such as 
we have in the United States of America, that Bol- 
shevist movement would never have landed into power ; 
if we had not a labor movement in America, with all 
the elements making up America and all the propa- 
ganda that has been going on, I have not the slightest 
hesitancy in saying that my best judgment is that we 
would have had the Bolsheviki right in the United 
States. I do not know that we are quite so free from 
them now. 

There is another point that I want to make. As 
one of the evidences of this tremendous progress that 
has been made by the American labor movement, I 
desire to call your attention to the years of agitation 
and the educational campaigns conducted in what was 
popularly known as "the abolition of government by 
injunction." Neither you nor I have time to enter 
into a discussion of this subject. Those who are suf- 
ficiently interested to have the detailed information 
can get whatever the American Federation of Labor 
can help to give. But as the result of this agitation and 
these campaigns of education and the sacrifice of men 
who were willing to suffer for the right, we have had 
enacted upon the statute books of the United States 
a law, commonly known as the Clayton Anti-Trust 
Law. A sentence in that law reads as follows : "That 
the labor of a human being is not a commodity or 

[195] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

article of commerce." That declaration in Itself is the 
most far reaching of any ever made by any authorita- 
tive government of any country of the whole world. 

The labor of a human being is not a commodity or 
article of commerce! If that declaration had been in 
existence prior to our Civil War, slavery would have 
been abolished without that war, for the slave's labor 
was the labor of a human being and was regarded as 
a commodity and an article of commerce. That dec- 
laration, now the law of our land, takes the human 
being, the men, the women, the children, out of the 
class which characterizes them and their labor power 
as commodities, inanimate, such as this glass, this 
table, the chandelier, or a side of beef, or a pound of 
pork. It constitutes a recognition of the human side 
of the masses of our people, the workers, before the 
law, — the physical, legal, industrial, political and social 
qualities of all the citizens of America. 

We are giving service to our country; we propose 
to give service. We shall not permit ourselves during 
this war, or at any time thereafter, to be lulled into 
any false paradise. The propaganda of offensiveness, 
the propaganda of subtlety, the propaganda to divert us 
from our humane, natural, patriotic and logical course, 
the effort to divert us from this course will fail, no mat- 
ter by whom undertaken. We are going to stand by 
the fundamental principles of our Republic. We are 
glad to declare that we are behind the government, the 
country, our Republic, our President, and our Allies, 
to fight this fight to the finish, until democracy and 
freedom and justice shall be enthroned throughout 
the world. 

[196] 



CANADA AND THE WAR 

In the countries of the world which have cast their lot 
on the side of democracy and opportunity, many struggles 
and many sacrifices have been made, but there is not a 
man or a woman in any of the democratic countries that now 
regrets the sacrifices that have been made in the past that 
freedom may survive. 

In the Canadian House of Commons, Ottawa, April 26th, 
1018. 

TT7TTH my associates and me that enterprise in 
* * which we are now all engaged, and which we 
have been accustomed to call war, is no longer fully 
expressed by the term war, but takes on a larger view, 
a larger cause, a greater meaning; it is the most won-> 
derful crusade ever entered upon by men in the whole 
history of the world. No nobler cause, no holier un- 
dertaking, has ever commanded the intelligent and the 
self-sacrificing natures of men. You men of Canada, 
there was no compulsion that impelled you into this 
war; there was no compulsion for our Australian 
brothers to enter into the war; there was no need for 
the men of South Africa to enter into the war; there 
was no compulsion that drove India into the war. The 
Mother Country of democracy, her life and her honor, 
were at stake. Her plighted faith had been given, 
Belgium outraged and overrun, France invaded ; Eng- 
land responded, and her colonies and dominions, her 

[197] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

men and her women, who had learned what was meant 
by English democracy and English idealism, responded 
with an alacrity and a purpose and a meaning that 
sent a thrill to the hearts and consciences of liberty- 
loving men the world over. 

We had no quarrel with the people of Germany. 
We even had no quarrel with the autocratic Im- 
perialistic Government of Germany. So long as that 
system suited or apparently suited the ideas and the 
purposes of the German people, they might have gone 
on and on and on, suffering as they might be, tyran- 
nized over as they were, denied opportunity for self- 
expression, wonderfully successful in their arts, in 
their sciences and in their trade. No one wished them 
ill so long as they confined themselves to their own 
tasks of self-development. But when, unsatisfied with 
the marts of the world and with the acceptance of 
the standards set in the sciences of Germany, they 
let the dogs of war loose to dominate in the every-day 
affairs of the human family the world over — my 
tribute to Belgium in her agony ; my tribute to France 
in her gallantry; my tribute to Great Britain, and to 
you men of Canada for the magnificent response which 
all have made, declaring to the German militarist ma- 
chine: Thus far shalt thou go and no farther; back 
from France, back from Belgium — and then we will 
talk peace terms with you. 

It is needless for me to refer to the causes which 
finally brought the people and the Government of the 
United States into the struggle. You are, perhaps, 
better informed than I am upon that phase of it. But 
the conscience and sympathies of the people of the 

[198] 



CANADA AND THE WAR 

United States were with the cause of the allied 
countries, for on one side, the side of Germany, stood 
a dominating force, a militarist machine perfected in 
the science of murder; the denial of rights and oppor- 
tunities; and on the other side — our side, yours and 
mine — was the spirit of freedom, the spirit of democ- 
racy, a sense of justice to all mankind; a willingness 
to afford opportunity to the peoples of all countries to 
work out their own destinies as best they could. Theirs 
the side of reaction, power, the domination of might; 
ours the side of opportunity for the free development 
of the human. There was no other choice ; there could 
have been no other choice. Perhaps this incident of 
recent occurrence has not attracted world-wide at- 
tention, but I desire just to mention it as indicative 
of the whole scheme which underlies Germany's prose- 
cution of this war. In the Prussian Diet recently the 
Chancellor declared against a proposal which had been 
presented in that body for universal manhood suf- 
frage in Prussia. The most significant statement made 
by him in opposition to that proposal was that if uni- 
versal manhood suffrage were to come to Prussia, it 
would be worse than losing the war. Is this not typical 
of all that preceded the war, and of the manner in 
which the war has been conducted by our enemies ? 

It is not understood among the people of Germany 
that there is any possible efficiency in any activity of 
life unless it is founded upon might and power, from 
above, leading down. It is the contempt which they 
hold for men in democratic countries. They believed 
that the people of democracies were wholly inefficient, 
incapable of cooperating man power or of willingness 

[199] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

to be diverted from the ordinary avenues of industry, 
business, trade and the discussion of democratic poli- 
cies in order to become a potent force in defend- 
ing the rights of the people in common. It is that 
contempt, that lack of understanding of the fact that, 
when once the consciences and the hearts of the peo- 
ples of democratic countries are aroused, they become 
a potent fighting force that brooks no opposition to 
its triumphant conclusion that was Germany's un- 
doing. 

The Central Powers of Europe, Germany and 
Austria have as their ally "Civilized" Turkey. It 
is said among English-speaking countries : "Tell me 
your company, and I will tell you who you are." To 
say that the Allies of Germany and Austria are Turkey 
and Bulgaria is a sufficient answer to the inquiry in re- 
gard to keeping company. On our side we have whom ? 
We have France, Belgium, Italy, all the Dominions 
of Great Britain, and the Republic of the United 
States of America. It does not require much enthusi- 
asm or much understanding to know upon which 
side liberty loving men are willing to throw their lot. 
It has come to pass in the world's history that we are 
no longer great distances from each other, for we now 
speak in terms less of miles than of hours and minutes 
and seconds, and when our countries are so closely 
united in terms of information by telegraph, by wire- 
less, when we are in such close touch physically by fast- 
going trains and by fast-driven steamships, when we 
have the flying machines that have dominated the air, 
when we have our newspapers and magazines, when 
we meet in each other's territory so frequently, when 

[200] 



CANADA AND THE WAR 

we are in such close communication in business, in all 
the affairs of life there is a law of contact by which 
we acquire some of the characteristics of the peoples 
with whom we come in touch. 

The time was well chosen by the German Imperialist 
machine to inaugurate this battle when we were the 
least prepared for it, but, in my judgment, it had to 
come at some time or other. As Lincoln in his time 
said that the United States could no longer be half 
free and half slave, so the time, thank God, has come 
that sets up for determination now that this world can 
no longer remain half democratic and half autocratic. 

We are in this struggle. Our men have been hard 
pressed. It is not the easiest thing in the world to 
transform a democratic people from a peace footing 
to a war footing, but it has been done. The sacrifices 
are large. If there be more sacrifices necessary to be 
made, pray that those sacrifices may be as few as pos- 
sible. But though the sacrifices may be large and ex- 
acting, they must be made that liberty, opportunity, 
justice and democracy may survive for humanity. 

In the countries of the world which have cast their 
lot on the side of democracy and opportunity, many 
struggles and many sacrifices have been made, but 
there is not a man nor a woman in any of the demo- 
cratic countries who now regrets the sacrifices that 
have been made in the past that freedom may survive. 
And though our men and our women are burdened 
and made sad by the sacrifices that have been 
made, it must be a great satisfaction, a great honor and 
a great privilege to them, to know that their husbands, 
brothers and sons have made the fight that liberty shall 

[201] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

live. Those who will write the history of the time, 
like us in our day who pay tribute to those who have 
gone before and who have kept the light burning that 
the ideals of freedom and justice shall survive, will 
record the wonderful sacrifices made in our day and 
pay tribute to us, saying : "Well done, good and faith- 
ful servants." 

Somehow, I have an abiding faith that the cause 
of right and of justice cannot die. I would rather die 
fighting for the right than not to fight at all. If we 
should fail — and I repeat, we cannot fail, we must not 
fail, we will not fail — it is better to fail fighting than 
it is to submit to the yoke. The willingness to submit 
to the tyrant's yoke simply means the stifling and 
stamping out of the spirit of liberty. The willingness 
to fight and to sacrifice for liberty keeps the spark 
alive in the hearts of some men, and in time it will 
rekindle and spread into a flame, a consuming flame, 
so that every man will rise up and fight again for 
liberty. 

In this hour of the world's travail, with its suffering 
and its struggle, there must be unity of spirit among 
the peoples of all our Allied nations. I believe, indeed, 
that the time will come when the great English- 
speaking peoples of the world, allied with the other 
powers of the world, are going to spread this 
doctrine even until it reaches the innermost recesses 
of Germany. In this world struggle there must be 
not only unity of spirit, cooperation and ideality among 
the peoples of the Allied countries, but there must be 
unity of spirit and activity among the peoples in all 
walks of life in each of the Allied countries. There 

[202] 



CANADA AND THE WAR 

must be a willingness to do and to dare, a willingness 
to sacrifice that the common cause may live and survive. 
Perhaps if I give you a part of the declaration made 
by the representatives of the workers of America — the 
United States and Canada — it may be refreshing and 
interesting though it is more than a year since the 
declaration was made. A conference was held on 
March 12, 1917, in the city of Washington, about a 
month before the United States entered the war. I 
had previously submitted to my associates in the Exec- 
utive Council of the American Federation of Labor 
the suggestion that they should authorize me to call a 
conference and they readily acquiesced. After a 
thorough discussion of the entire question the repre- 
sentatives of the American Labor Movement — I re- 
peat, of the United States and Canada — adopted a 
declaration.* 

Gentlemen, from the time of that declaration until 
the present moment there has not been a difference of 
opinion between the policy of the Government of the 
United States and of the organized bodies of the work- 
ing people. I knew before I came to Ottawa, as I 
know now and am convinced, that the people of Can- 
ada did not need to be heartened or encouraged in 
this war. They are determined as are the people of 
the United States to fight this battle to a finish and 
not to conclude it by any peace negotiations founded 
upon the map of Europe as it is to-day. My primary 
purpose in coming here was to receive inspiration 
from my visit, as I have already received it, and to 

* Mr. Gompers here read from declaration of March 12, 1917, 
printed on page 289 of the appendix. 

[203] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

give a word by way of suggestion, if needs be, that 
unity of action and of spirit on the part of the Gov- 
ernment and of the workers and of the business men 
of Canada should prevail in order that we may win 
this war. There is no course of generosity or con- 
sideration which can be shown but that the workers 
will understand and appreciate and give if necessary 
more heartily of their cooperation, their energies 
and their service. After all out of this struggle the 
old conditions will never enter our lives again. We 
must dismiss from our minds the thought that after 
the war is over we shall return to pre-war conditions 
and jog along somehow. Through this war there are 
going to be new concepts of duty, responsibility and 
service. Service? There was a question propounded 
thousands of years ago which this crusade will an- 
swer: "Am I my brother's keeper?" The events and 
the sacrifice and the developments of this great strug- 
gle will answer that question in the affirmative. 
Either we will have to help to bear our brother's 
burden, or he will be crushed under the load. It is a 
question of new concepts of human right, human wel- 
fare, and social justice. With the sacrifices that our 
men are making, with the new ideas and ideals that 
are quickening in our minds, with the faster pulsa- 
tions of our hearts and our beings, there is coming 
a new, a better and a nobler time. We are waiting 
for that time and for those ideals, that human brother- 
hood, that higher conception of duty devolving upon 
us, to all and from all, the world over. Sacrifice 
counts as nothing against all that is at stake as the 
outcome of this universal conflagration. There can 

[204] 



CANADA AND THE WAR 

be but one ending to it all. The human will become 
supreme. Right, justice, consideration, opportunity 
for development, and for the attainment of the highest 
of which the human mind can conceive, will prevail 
and bring peace and contentment to the whole human 
race. 

We are fighting and sacrificing that peace may 
come to the world. No peoples have ever had a 
greater opportunity to win for themselves for all 
future generations the encomiums of praise and serv- 
ice than have the people of our own time. God grant 
that the day is near at hand when the forces not only 
of arms but the forces of the spirit dominating 
the minds of the peoples of all democratic countries 
shall prevail and our boys come home to us with the 
triumph of glory. 



[205] 



THE DOUBLE DUTY OF AMERICANS 

There are but two things that count now — to win the war 
for freedom, and, during the struggle to win the war, to 
maintain the standards of American life at home. 

At the Railway Station with the train held fifteen minutes 
under special orders at Milwaukee, Wis., June 6th, ipi8. 

MEN and women of Milwaukee, — better and big- 
ger and broader and higher — men and women 
of America, upon you and upon the citizenship of 
this Republic depends the future of the civilized world. 
Now is not the time for argument or quibbling. We 
are now, indeed, in the fight. If there were any doubt 
before, the demonstration of danger right in the heart 
of America and upon our own ground, for the waters 
adjacent to our country are as much the ground 
and possession of the liberty loving people of the 
United States as is the terra firma upon which we 
stand, would dispel it. 

Must it come home to Milwaukee? Must it come 
home to Wisconsin? Must it come home to the in- 
terior part of our country? Must it come into our 
very hearts and souls and bodies before we are aroused 
to the danger which the democracies of the world 
are confronting? 

I have no hate in my soul; but to me the time has 
come when every man who loves liberty, every woman 

[206] 



THE DOUBLE DUTY OF AMERICANS 

who loves freedom, every man and woman the world 
over who understands what is hanging in the bal- 
ance, must come to the realization, no matter what 
opinions may have been held heretofore, must now 
come to the realization, that there is nothing too 
ruthless, nothing too brutal, nothing too atrocious in 
the effort to dominate the world with imperialism 
and militarism. 

There are but two things that count now: one, to 
win the war for freedom, and second, during the 
struggle to win the war, to maintain the standards of 
American life at home. 

While we are fighting for freedom and democracy 
abroad, while our fighting boys in the trenches and 
on the ships are hazarding their all and possibly mak- 
ing the supreme sacrifice, you and you, and you and I 
and every mother's son and daughter of America, 
should stand true to the great cause of freedom, jus- 
tice, democracy and humanity in every country on the 
face of the globe ! 

I have said that I have no hate in my soul and I 
trust that hate will never penetrate my being. I have 
nothing but sympathy for the men of labor of Ger- 
many and of Austria — sympathy for their lack of 
understanding and lack of courage to make their un- 
derstanding vital in this contest; but until the peo- 
ple of Germany, until the men of labor of Germany, 
demonstrate their purpose to work and to do battle 
and make sacrifices, if necessary, for the undoing 
of Kaiserdom in Germany in order to establish 
democracy, we can have no dealings with them ex- 

[207] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

cept to crush for them what they had not the courage 
to crush for themselves. 

The world, — all Germany and Kaiserdom with all 
that it means — has its eyes riveted on America and 
particularly upon Wisconsin. Wisconsin must give 
a better account of herself than she has. I might 
say things that would sound pleasant to tickle your 
fancy and through you the fancy of the multitudes of 
Wisconsin's citizenship. I prefer to express the 
thoughts that are in my mind and that well up to my 
throat from my heart, to give expression to the duty 
devolving upon you and all of us as men and women 
in this Republic. The time is coming when the man 
who fails to support the Republic of the United 
States, and her Allies, is standing in the way of 
democracy, no matter how high-sounding may 
be his platitudes or pleadings. This is the great 
psychological hour in which democracy is hang- 
ing in the balance. Understanding to what great 
lengths this spirit and feeling of democracy 
may go, no one, whatever his partisanship may be, 
can foretell the outcome. It may mean the establish- 
ing of the great principles of democracy the world 
over. But whether it be the great aim and goal of 
universal democracy, or whether it is simply to batter 
back the hordes of those who would crush democracy, 
the tendency is in the direction of democracy and 
every man must do his utmost; every man loving 
liberty not only feels for himself and his fellows to- 
day, but for the children who are yet to come, the 
generations yet unborn, who will hold you and me to 
a strict accountability for the services we have ren- 

[208] 



THE DOUBLE DUTY OF AMERICANS 

dered or failed to render in this great world struggle. 

Now I have an abiding faith that the spirit of 
liberty cannot be crushed. I have an abiding faith 
that human progress and civilization will endure and 
that progress and that civilization will be founded 
upon human brotherhood. Still, though believing 
and hoping and striving for international brotherhood, 
there must be nationality in spirit and in action, and as 
national units we shall bring about the great dream 
of the poets, the ideal of the philosophers and the 
historians, — world brotherhood; but in the making 
of that time, in the making of that hope, in the effort 
to realize that aspiration, men must do and dare, and 
he who fails in that supreme duty is unworthy to en- 
joy the freedom and the spirit of freedom of our Re- 
public and of our democracy. 

I have not the time to address you at great length, 
the train is in the station and with others I am on my 
way to St. Paul to attend the convention of the Ameri- 
can Federation of Labor and there to give expression 
of the duty and the loyalty of the workers of the 
United States. 

I have no hesitancy in believing, and declaring the 
belief, that that convention will stand true, true to 
the labor movement of America, and to the funda- 
mental principles of the labor movement of the civil- 
ized democratic world; it will be true to the Repub- 
lic of the United States, true to the cause in which 
she is engaged, true to the cause of our Allies, and, 
under the leadership of the Greatest Democrat, the 
interpreter of the thought and the spirit of justice 
and freedom the world over, we will stand behind 

[209] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

our government and behind Woodrow Wilson, the 
President of the United States. 

Permit me to express to you my great appreciation 
of the honor you have done me to assemble here, even 
if it were only to> look into each other's faces, to bid 
each other God speed, heartening each other in the 
great work before us. Men and women of Milwau- 
kee, I convey to you the fraternal good will of all 
the workers of other states and an expression of our 
profound hope that Milwaukee, Wisconsin, will come 
into her own; that you will present a solid phalanx 
of united manhood and womanhood with the workers 
and the citizenship of the whole Republic of the 
United States and forever and ever kill the hope that 
was bred in the diseased mind of an autocracy, that it 
can, or ever will be, permitted to dominate the peoples 
of the world. 



[210] 



NO PEACE BY NEGOTIATION 

Germany failed to understand that once the hearts of 
the people of a democracy are aroused and touched, they 
become invincible. 

At a meeting to welcome an American Federation of Labor 
Mission on its return from Great Britain and France. St. 
Paul, Minn., June 12th, 1018. 

YOU come here primarily to hear the message of 
the men and women who were appointed as 
a Mission representing the masses of labor of 
America, to the workers and the people generally of 
Great Britain and of France. They have a wonder- 
ful message to convey to you, and through you to 
the citizenship of Minnesota and every city and state 
of this great Union of ours. No doubt their message 
will reach the center of every civilized country on the 
face of the globe, and it is, and must be, their wish 
and hope, as it is mine, and I feel it to be yours, that 
their message will reach the minds and hearts and 
consciences of the people of Germany and Austria. 
It may not be amiss to relate, however, briefly, how 
it came about that these representatives of Labor, the 
men and women composing that Mission, were sent 
to the other side. We are certain, at least to a con- 
siderable degree, that a systematic propaganda has 
been conducted by the German government in Ger- 

[211] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

many, and an underground, and often unknown, 
propaganda in the countries outside of Germany, 
to divide the masses of the people of all countries 
outside of Germany into hostile camps, to instill into 
the minds of the people of Belgium, France, Eng- 
land, Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Russia, America, the 
idea that internationalism was the most important of 
all principles to guide the people of the world; and 
while that propaganda for internationalism was con- 
ducted with wonderful subtlety and ability in Ger- 
many, the principle enunciated and practiced was 
nationality first, and internationality second. The 
whole program and policy were to divide the peoples 
of the various countries outside of Germany, and par- 
ticularly the labor movements of those countries, into 
hostile camps. I know of a large number of agents 
of German propaganda, and of many others who are 
not the direct agents of German plan and propa- 
ganda, but who are nevertheless, unconsciously, play- 
ing the game of Germany. That propaganda has 
gone on, that poison has been injected into many 
minds, resulting in the strange conduct of quite 
a number of people, workers in France and in Great 
Britain, and if my imagination is not stretched too 
far, I think that men so infected can be traced right 
in these United States. 

We hold that this, the Republic of the United 
States, the people of our Republic, have entered into 
this world struggle willing to offer up and to sacri- 
fice all things except honor and freedom in order 
that justice and democracy shall have the oppai*- 
tunity to live among the free peoples of the earth; 

[212] 



NO PEACE BY NEGOTIATION 

we hold that we have the right to determine at least 
our own policy and to carry out our own program 
for working towards the best possible results and 
bringing this terrific struggle to an end at the earliest 
possible date, with victory and glory upon the banner 
of our fighting boys and the fighting boys of Britain, 
France, Belgium and Italy. 

We are a peace-loving people. The American 
labor movement is a peace-loving movement. Only 
after the ruthless murder of our innocent men, women 
and children were we moved to declare that we were 
no longer pacifists; that to remain pacifists in the 
face of the scientific murder policy, plan and program 
of the German government was to write ourselves 
down as poltroons and cowards. If ever there was 
evidence that peace by negotiation with the present 
government of Germany is impossible, it is found in 
the example of Russia, defeated, crushed, humiliated, 
through a treaty of peace with the government of 
Germany, accepting provisions that it was scarcely 
believable any people or representatives speaking in 
the name of people, would or could accept. At this 
moment I want to say, that the people of the democ- 
racies of the world shall be wiped out before they ac- 
cept such a treaty of peace. 

And yet, after entering solemnly into a treaty with 
the semblance of government in Russia, scarcely was 
the ink with which the signatures to that treaty of 
peace were made dry, when to the fullest extent of her 
power, Germany sent into Russia her armed forces, 
invading that country as if it were still an enemy 
country, as if no treaty of peace had been signed. 

[213] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

To speak of a negotiated peace with the German 
government is to write into the history of the world 
for the future the principle that militarism is the 
only means by which the people can protect them- 
selves. To accept a treaty of peace now would be to 
write for all time that Germany and kaiserism had 
been the conquerors in this war. 

The autocratic, military machine of Germany is 
perhaps the most efficient murder organization ever 
brought together in the history of the world. The 
democracies of the world, including our own Repub- 
lic, were unprepared from a military viewpoint to 
hurl back such a great military organization. But 
Germany forgot or failed to take into account this 
one fact, that though we were unorganized for mili- 
tary policies and campaigns, and were going about 
our business in our ordinary way, working out our 
problems as best we could, once the hearts of the peo- 
ple of a democracy are aroused and touched, they be- 
come invincible in the power to smite the most power- 
ful military organization. 

A propaganda to divide the forces of Labor in our 
country has been going on here as it has gone on in 
Europe. We have heard much about the toilers in 
Europe wanting to arrange conferences with repre- 
sentatives of the German labor and Socialist move- 
ments ; we have heard much about their wanting to in- 
veigle or invite workers of our country into' such con- 
ferences. We know that there is not anything 
which that movement in Germany can do unless it has 
the approval of the German Imperial Government. 

We were disinclined, and emphatically declared our 
[214] 



NO PEACE BY NEGOTIATION 

determination not to sit in conference or to partici- 
pate in any conference of which the representatives of 
Germany in any way should be a part, either until they 
have overthrown their autocracy and established a de- 
mocracy at home or until the fighting forces of the 
allied countries and ourselves shall have driven the 
invading forces out of Serbia, out of Roumania, out 
of Russia, out of Belgium, out of France and out of 
Italy. 

There seems to be amongst the men of the labor 
movement in our allied countries the thought that 
this expression of our judgment is a violation of a 
principle. They imagine that if they send a delega- 
tion of men to the United States to confer with us, 
we should be easily persuaded to the other view and 
converted so that we too should take part in an inter- 
national conference to which the representatives of the 
labor movement in Germany would come as partici- 
pants. 

In order that Labor of Great Britain and France 
might have a clearer understanding of the soundness 
of our position, we sent over a delegation of labor 
men, seven men and two women, that they might con- 
fer with all of the representatives of every variety 
and shade of opinion of labor in Great Britain 
and France ; and while these men and women were to 
undertake that mission to clear the atmosphere and 
bring about an understanding of the fact that we were 
unalterably committed to that policy, come what may, 
in addition, the mission was asked to get to the cit- 
izenship of the countries where they might have the 
opportunity of going and to talk to the men at the 

[215] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

front and in the trenches, the fighting boys of all of 
our allied countries. They were to convey to them a 
word of heartening and encouragement, our pledge to 
them and to our Allies of all our man-power and all 
our wealth, with every possession of the people of 
the United States, that kaiserism shall be crushed and 
that freedom and justice shall obtain throughout the 
whole world. 

In an official way, the mission reported in a docu- 
ment presented to the convention of the American 
Federation of Labor now being held in St. Paul. In 
an unofficial manner, and yet quite as interestingly, 
they will briefly portray the activities of each one of 
the mission, and of the group. If ever a group of 
men and women have performed a service satisfac- 
torily and gratifyingly, I say here and now, conscious 
of the importance of the utterance, that in my wide 
experience I have found none to surpass and few to 
compare with this work. 

Personally, as well as officially, I feel a sense of 
obligation to these men and women for the magnifi- 
cence of their work and the great advantage which 
they have given to the right thinking men and women 
of America, and to our fellows across the sea. 

It is but proper that I should at this time read to 
you a telegram sent by the President of the United 
States to this meeting. 

"The American Alliance for Labor and Democracy have 
my heartiest hope for a successful meeting that will give 
added strength to future activities called into being to 
combat ignorance and misunderstanding skillfully played up- 
on by disloyal influences. Your organization has done a 
great and necessary work. It has aided materially in pro- 

[216] 



NO PEACE BY NEGOTIATION 

moting the unity that proceeds from a just understanding 
and is to-day a valid and important part of the great 
machinery to coordinate the energies of America in the 
prosecution of a just and righteous war. The war can be 
lost in America as well as on the fields of France, and ill- 
considered or unjustifiable interruptions of the essential 
labor of the country may make it impossible to win it. No 
controversy between capital and labor should be suffered to 
interrupt it until every instrumentality set up by the Govern- 
ment for its amicable settlement has been employed and its 
intermediation heeded to the utmost, and the Government 
has set up instrumentalities wholly fair and adequate. This 
duty to avoid such interruptions of industry wherever they 
can be avoided without the actual sacrifice of essential rights, 
rests upon the employer as imperatively as upon the work- 
man. No man can afford to do injustice at any time, but 
at this time, justice is of the essence of national defense, 
and contests for any sort of advantage that at other times 
would be justified, may now jeopardize the very life of the 
nation." 

(Signed) Woodrow Wilson. 



[217] 



FREEDOM IS NOT A GIFT 

The privilege of freedom is not handed down to man 
on a silver platter. Freedom is the exercise of the normal 
activities, the thoughts and the honest hopes of a democratic 
people. Freedom cannot be enjoyed unless it is understood 
and exercised. 

Flag Day Exercises at Rice Park, under the auspices of 
the St. Paul Lodge No. 50, Benevolent and Protective Order 
of Elks, St. Paul, Minn. June 14th, 1918. 

"J\ T EN and women, is it necessary at this time and 
■*■'■*■ in this world struggle when not only freedom, 
but civilization itself, is hanging in the balance, to 
talk patriotism, to talk of love of country, to talk 
of love of home or wife or children or friends? It 
is to the lasting disgrace of any man or woman in this 
country who will not proclaim himself or herself de- 
voted unreservedly to the cause of America, of Ameri- 
canism, democracy, the cause for which our country 
entered into this world struggle, to help to make it 
possible that the people of the United States shall have 
full freedom and opportunity to live their own lives 
since God has instilled into their hearts the hope of 
living as a free people, unafraid of domination from 
without or failure to appreciate their duties at home. 
The privilege of freedom is not handed down to 
man on a silver platter. Freedom means more than 
a term, a word. Freedom is the exercise of the nor- 

[218] 



FREEDOM IS NOT A GIFT 

mal activities, the thoughts and the honest hopes of 
a democratic people. Freedom cannot be enjoyed un- 
less it is understood and exercised. There is no ques- 
tion about it, that even among the peoples of Germany 
prior to this world war, they sang of freedom. They 
had their folk lore, they had their songs dedicated to 
freedom. But it was a freedom that they themselves 
did not understand or exercise. It was of the dim, 
dim future, perhaps the freedom of the "sweet by- 
and-by," when we propose to exercise and live for 
that freedom now, in our time. 

Freedom springs from the heart outright. Free- 
dom is the concept of living our own life and not to 
have some one dominate us in our every relation and 
in our every activity. Freedom is a term so broad 
and deep that it has not yet percolated to the be- 
nighted minds of the poor, oppressed, deluded, boast- 
fully intelligent, but actually ignorant, people of the 
Central Powers. 

It was my good fortune to have twice in my life 
opportunities to visit Germany. You who know me 
now perhaps a little better than you knew me in the 
past (for I want to tell you as a matter of fact I have 
not changed one jot; you have changed your concep- 
tion of me, that is all), know that the things, the 
ideals, the thoughts, which I now proclaim are the 
same that I have held from my young boyhood. It 
is this critical time through which the world of free- 
dom is passing that has broadened the minds of all 
of us. We understand now that we are engaged 
in one common cause, — the defense of the right, the 
defense of justice, the defense of the ideal of the com- 

[219] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

mon brotherhood of the people of the United States. 

If there be any one institution in America which 
typifies and exemplifies and justifies the whole course 
and cause to which the American labor movement is 
committed, it is the teachings of the Benevolent and 
Protective Order of Elks. To be helpful to our fel- 
lows; to do right; to bring about the common uplift 
of the people and to have impressed upon our minds 
and hearts the exalted principle of loyalty to our 
country and the symbol of its character and life, — 
The Red, White and Blue, the Stars and Stripes of 
Old Glory, is the purpose of the Elks. 

So I find myself in most excellent company with 
the boys who hail each other as Brother Elks, the men 
who will give the warning in the hope of preventing 
wrong and of doing right, who will extend the help- 
ing hand who will do that which one man should do 
unto another and spread the gospel of nationalism in 
America, the doctrine of taking into our hearts, which 
are large enough and broad enough in human sym- 
pathy and affection, the whole human race, the man- 
hood and womanhood of the world who are willing to 
accept the doctrines of democracy, of freedom and 
of brotherhood. 

It is not possible for the people of our country and 
the people of the democratic countries fighting in this 
contest, to lose the war against Germany. We must 
win ! We dare not lose ! It were better to die fight- 
ing than to accept the heel and the yoke of kaiserism 
upon the people. If we fight, and while fighting if it 
could be possible to lose, at least the spirit of freedom 
would be handed down to our people. The spark of 

[220] 



FREEDOM IS NOT A GIFT 

freedom would be lighted in the hearts and the minds 
of generations yet unborn and some day, somehow, 
that spark would grow to a torch and a flame which 
would burn people into desire and willingness to sac- 
rifice, to fight again to establish freedom. 

If we fail now, — if we accept the yoke, as some 
pacifists, or more properly speaking, pro-Germans, 
would have us do, then there is no hope for liberty, 
either to-day or for the future. 

If we fail, the Lights of Freedom go out over the 
whole world. But we cannot fail! We must not 
fail! We must be true to the men who in the long 
ago gave up their all that this Republic, this new na- 
tion might be founded. We cannot be untrue, we 
dare not be untrue to them, the men who gave to us 
a new republic with a new meaning for the rights of 
man, together with the opportunity to work out our 
own destinies. So I say to you, my friends, let us 
take heart and courage, hope and determination, that 
nothing shall stand between us and our Allies on the 
one hand and the crushing of kaiserism in all the 
world on the other. 

It may not be amiss to say that within ten minutes 
of the close of the morning session of the convention 
of the American Federation of Labor, every man and 
woman, delegates, officers, visitors, arose and stood 
in reverential enthusiasm for the Red, White and 
Blue, the American Flag. 

There is no one who, in verse at least, or perhaps 
in any other way, has expressed that for which the 
American Flag stands better than the man whose two 
stanzas of poetry I propose to read to you in closing. 

[221] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

YOUR FLAG AND MY FLAG 
By Wilbur D. Nesbit 

Your flag and my flag, 

And how it flies to-day, 
In your land and my land, 

And half a world away ! 
Rose-red and blood-red, 

The stripes forever gleam; 
Snow-white and soul-white — 

The good forefather's dream. 
Sky-blue and true-blue, with stars to gleam aright — 
The gloried guidon of the day, a shelter through the night. 

Your flag and my flag, 

And, oh, how much it holds — 
Your land and my land — 

Secure within its folds! 
Your heart and my heart 

Beat quicker at the sight; 
Sun-kissed and wind-tossed 

Red and blue and white. 
The one flag — the great flag — the flag for me and you,— 
Glorified all else beside — the red and white and blue. 



LABOR AND THE ALLIED CAUSE 

The cause of labor is so closely entwined with the cause 
of all the allied countries and our own that we could not 
separate ourselves from it even if we would, and we would 
not if we could. 

Mass Meeting at Madison Square Garden, New York, con- 
ducted by the Committee on Allied Tribute to France, July 
14th, 1018. 

TT is but fitting that the toilers of our country should 
join with you and the representatives of the other 
allied countries to pay a tribute of affection and recog- 
nition and obligation to the men of La Belle France. 
We, if I may speak in the name of the wage earners 
of America, are loyal to the United States and her 
Allies, not blindly, but for a cause. The cause of La- 
bor throughout the centuries has been a struggle 
against tyranny and oppression. It is therefore fit- 
ting that the men and the women of toil in our coun- 
try should be, heart and soul, with the United States 
in this fight. 

What hope is there for freedom, if it were pos- 
sible for Kaiserism to win? What hope for eman- 
cipation of the toiling masses, if Germany could win? 
What opportunity for free assemblage, free press or 
free speech, if Germany could win? What right of 
free association among the toilers, for their expres- 
sion, if Germany could win in this contest? 

[223] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

The cause of Labor is so closely entwined with the 
cause of the allied countries and our own, that we 
x:ould not separate ourselves from it even if we would, 
and we would not if we could. 

When in the scheme of things which generated in 
the mind of the Imperial German Hierarchy — the au- 
tocracy to dominate the world — the gauntlet was 
thrown down, the challenge was given to every man 
and woman the world over who believed in freedom. 
Yes, wonderful, gallant France, the gentleman among 
the nations of the world, with heroism and sacrifice, 
halted the Hun on the onward march upon Paris, to 
give the other allied countries an opportunity for a 
breathing spell, an opportunity to gather themselves 
together. It seems that the guilty conscience of 
wrongdoing always omits one particular, essential fea- 
ture. It does not count upon the human equation. 
The military machine of Germany had been in the 
course of preparation for half a century. The world 
was unprepared to meet such a military onslaught. 

Democratic countries were regarded as inefficient, 
incapable of defense, incapable of concerted and con- 
centrated effort. But, this thought was lost sight of, 
— that once the democracy of the world is aroused, 
once the conscience and the spirit of the people are 
touched, neither Kaiserism nor militarism can with- 
stand the uprising of the people. It was a war which 
Germany thrust upon us. It is no longer a war. 
With the allied democracies of the world now fight- 
ing for the great concepts of freedom and justice and 
liberty and peace, it is a crusade for mankind. I 
may at least in part speak for the men of Labor, the 

[224] 



LABOR AND THE ALLIED CAUSE 

great mass of our people who, after all, are physically 
the largest sufferers of all the groups of our people. 
I want, even with the responsibility which the words 
carry and the thought conveys, to ally myself with 
the great President of the United States in his dec- 
laration, on the Fourth of July, that there can be no 
compromise between autocracy and democracy. The 
quarrel is not of our seeking, it was thrust upon us, 
'but it has come, and now is the time from which we 
cannot escape, autocracy must come to an end now, 
the end must not be postponed to some other time. 

There is no man in all the world to whom I could 
take second position before the outbreak of this ti- 
tanic struggle as an advocate of international peace, 
but when a marauder comes on your street, or a gang 
of them, you cannot proclaim yourself a pacifist; you 
must defend your home and yourself, if you have any 
spirit or any red blood coursing in your veins. And 
from an ultra-pacifist I have become transformed into 
somewhat of a fighting man, yearning and hoping for 
peace, for a just peace, for a peace that shall bring 
hope and light into the lives of peoples all the world 
over. Not only are we fighting for our own freedom, 
for our own existence, for our own concepts of jus- 
tice, but we are fighting for the freedom of the heart 
and the conscience of the true German people. If 
through mal-education, if through stunting the brain 
or misdirecting it, the people of Germany have per- 
mitted their course to be diverted, all the greater pity 
that we must fight them, but come what may out of 
this war, out of this crusade, there will be new con- 

[225] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

cepts of the relationship between man and man and 
country and country. 

The old concepts will be thrown into the scrap- 
heap. There will be new concepts of the dignity and 
of the rights of man, of real democracy, of real free- 
dom; there will be real opportunities for the cultiva- 
tion of the best that is in us, real opportunities to 
make of ourselves and of the peoples of all the coun- 
tries of the world free peoples to work out their own 
destinies, to establish governments existing by the 
will and the consent of the governed, thus working 
out the universal brotherhood of man, the dream of 
the poets and the song of the philosophers of all time. 



[226] 



MILITARISM MUST BE DESTROYED 

We found ourselves in the position as to whether the 
labor movement, the spirit of the labor movement, could 
live if it were possible for kaiserism and militarism to 
dominate. 

Official luncheon and reception tendered by the British 
Government to the American Federation of Labor Mission, 
Hotel Carlton, London, August 30, 1018. 

I"T is not often that I find it difficult to express the 

thoughts and emotions which arise in my mind 

caused in this instance not only by the representative 

men here assembled, but also by the kind references 

made to my associates and to myself. 

Perhaps I had better start by telling an anecdote 
which occurred in the early history of the United 
States and find its application to myself. It was be- 
fore the days of efficient railroads in our country and 
a southern Senator was about to face a new campaign 
for reelection. Traveling from one part of the state 
to another, he met quite a number of people whom he 
knew and others whom he did not know. While rid- 
ing in a buggy driven by his negro driver, two men 
came from the sidewalk in the opposite direction and 
one of the men said quite audibly to the other: "Do 
you see that distinguished man riding in that buggy? 
He is a wonderful man, he is a truly great man." And 
the negro driver nudged the Senator and said to him : 

[227] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

"Say, boss, I wonder who he means, you or me ?" In 
this labor movement of America we may say, as did 
Admiral Schley after a great naval battle in the 
Spanish- American war : "There is glory enough in it 
for us all." And he who contributes even but a slight 
effort to obtain the common object is deserving of as 
much praise as the man who has larger opportunities. 

A few days before I left Washington to proceed to 
an Atlantic port to embark on this trip, I had the 
honor of an interview with our great President, 
Woodrow Wilson. In addition to introducing to him 
the labor man who was to act as President of the 
American Federation of Labor during my absence, I 
wanted to bid him au revoir and to ask whether he 
had something that he would like me to say to the 
people of Great Britain, France and Italy. Many of 
you men, all of you, know of him, but it is given to 
very few to know the man. Your great Ambassador, 
Lord Reading, knows the man. I am profoundly 
grateful to have had the privilege, in part at least, of 
knowing him. The President's answer to me was 
something like this : 

During the civil war, President Lincoln desired 
that a message might be conveyed to Jefferson Davis. 
Mr. Lincoln had learned that possibly the proposition 
which might reach Mr. Davis would end the struggle 
between the north and the south. You know that at 
that time, men who led great movements and great 
countries were gentlemen. Mr. Lincoln asked a 
Washington newspaper man to convey the message. 
Then the representative of the press asked Mr. Lin- 

[228] 



MILITARISM MUST BE DESTROYED 

coin if he had any other special message to convey, 
and Mr. Lincoln, in his wonderful way, said: 

"I had better tell you a story. There was a little 
girl about seven years of age. It was her birthday, 
and she had been given a set of wooden blocks with 
letters on them. The child had played with them all 
day and in the evening she was so tired. Just before 
retiring to her bed, she went down reverently on her 
knees and folded her chubby hands, but she was simply 
too tired to give expression to her evening prayer. 
She took the blocks of wood and letters and threw 
them on the floor, and said : 'O Lord, you know what 
I want to say. Let me say the best thing you want 
me to say. Good-night, Amen.' " And the story of 
the President stopped abruptly there. 

And so I have really no message from the President 
except that I know his spirit, a man of passions, a 
man of strong convictions, deep of feeling and of high 
idealism. But, if I may take the privilege of convey- 
ing the message of the blocks of wood impatiently 
thrown down upon the floor that evening, I have the 
right to say that the President and the people of the 
United States are with Great Britain and France and 
Italy and all the allies in this struggle to the end. 

Speaking as one who in part represents the great 
masses of the people of America, I will say that we 
are whole-heartedly in this struggle. Perhaps I can 
do no better now than to read from a declaration made 
by the responsible officers of the organized labor 
movement of America, a declaration made on the 12th 
of March, 1917, nearly a month before President Wil- 
son appeared before the Congress of the United States 

[229] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

and presented the indictment of crimes and brutality 
against the Imperial German government. Somehow, 
many believe that that declaration made by the organ- 
ized labor movement of America had much influence 
in conveying to the President of the United States and 
to our Congress the realization that the toilers of our 
country would stand behind them and our government 
faithfully and whole-heartedly in the determination of 
our course.* 

That declaration was indorsed by unanimous vote 
of the convention of the American Federation of 
Labor held last November. That is the spirit of our 
country. 

We found ourselves in the position as to whether 
the labor movement, the spirit of the labor movement, 
could live if it were possible for Kaiserism and mili- 
tarism to dominate. 

The labor movement represents perhaps the almost 
inarticulate yearnings of the people — many, many of 
those who have perhaps not the intelligence or the 
understanding or the courage to express their own 
hopes and ideals. Wherever in the whole world 
tyranny and injustice prevail within any country, it is 
the masses of the people who are compelled to bear 
the burden. The labor movement is the expression of 
discontent of the masses with all forms of wrong and 
injustice. I shall not undertake to say that we, of our- 
selves, express that in the wisest manner; we do the 
best we know how. 

I have learned to know man, to know something of 

*See appendix, page 289, for declaration of March 12, 1917, 
from which Mr. Gompers read. 

[230] 



MILITARISM MUST BE DESTROYED 

his weakness and something of his strength, and it is 
my purpose to endeavor to express the best collective 
thought of the masses of labor. I am quite willing 
that the so-called "intellectuals" may enjoy themselves 
in their self-assumed mental superiority. We organize 
the best we can to work out our own destinies as best 
we can and as best we know. The chain is no stronger 
than its weakest link; no army can move faster than 
its slowest companion in arms, and he who undertakes 
to drive or lead a movement faster than the great 
mass of workers understand and appreciate, will find 
himself high and dry. We apply ourselves to our 
everyday problems, not to bring about a cataclysm or 
a social revolution every year. There are some who 
are anxious to and who declare they will inaugurate 
a system for the attainment of all rights and the 
abolition of all wrongs at nine o'clock to-morrow 
morning without fail, provided it does not rain. Our 
work is to make to-day a better day than yesterday and 
to-morrow a better day than to-day, and to-morrow's 
to-morrow each a better day than the one which has 
gone before, to work out the disenthralment of the 
great wage working masses of our country upon an 
evolutionary rather than a revolutionary basis. 

We have earned in the democracies of the world the 
right to express that thought and the right to work 
out this plan of evolutionary progress. In the United 
States of America we have made, through economic 
and political action, wonderful strides and progress. 
I hope that the time may come when in Great Britain, 
France and Italy and in conquered Germany there 
shall come the recognition in their laws of the funda- 

[231] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

mental laws enacted by the government of the United 
States, with the fredom not only of the seas but the 
freedom of the seamen. And in passing, I do not 
think that I ought to fail to say a word of the great 
appreciation felt in America for the splendid services 
performed by the Seamen's Union of Great Britain in 
this cause. In the United States, there is the Clayton 
Anti-Trust Law and the first sentence of section six 
of that law reads like this: "That the labor of a 
human being is not a commodity or article of com- 
merce." I will repeat : "The labor of a human being 
is not a commodity or article of commerce." It is a 
refutation of the old concept that the master had some 
proprietary right in the life and the labor of a human 
being. The labor of a human being is part of the 
human himself. It cannot be differentiated from him 
without taking the laborer himself. But the purpose 
of my referring to it is that in the labor movement 
of the United States so much is at stake. We had 
been marching from the old time slavery of more than 
fifty years ago until the workers of America were in- 
deed sovereign citizens equal with all other people in 
different walks of life. To have permitted the menace 
of autocracy . to overcome the democracy of Great 
Britain and of France and to have dominated America 
would have meant the beginning of the end of it all. 

We saw the situation; our hearts bled at the out- 
rages committed by the murderous government of 
Germany. About twelve millions of the population 
of the United States are German, either by birth or 
extraction. In addition, we had the German reservists 
who were in the United States and the organized 

[232] 



MILITARISM MUST BE DESTROYED 

German propaganda. There was a tremendous prob- 
lem presented to our people and our government. 
Though we saw and knew what we knew, and sus- 
pected what we suspected, our country was not in a 
position to take up the just cause which otherwise it 
might have been enabled to do. But when similar out- 
rages and similar murders were committed against our 
own people and when our own men, women and chil- 
dren, engaged in honest business and traveling either 
for business or pleasure, were murdered in cold blood, 
the people of the United States and their governmental 
representatives were wrought up to a pitch of white 
heat and demanded that war be declared. 

Under the constitution of the United States, the 
power to declare that a state of war existed between 
our government and the Imperial German Government 
was vested in Congress. The men of labor in the 
United States are proud in believing that the attitude 
of the labor movement, as set forth in the declaration 
of March 12, 191 7, prior to our country's entering the 
war, in support of our government in peace or in war, 
greatly helped to clarify the situation. 

Now, here we are ; we are in this war, or, may I say 
that it has ceased to be a war, and is now a crusade? 
Our men of labor of America are engaged in this war; 
our fighting boys have been coming over here. Dur- 
ing the Civil War there was a song composed, and 
generally sung in the North, addressed to Lincoln, 
the President of the United States at that time : "We 
are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand 
strong." 

So we say to you, our allied nation, and unto the 
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AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

other allied nations, "We are coming, brothers, in the 
struggle, five millions strong," and, perhaps continuing 
that statement by quoting President Wilson, himself : 
"Why stop at five million?" We are giving our man- 
hood and we will give all that we can of our wealth 
and in sacrifice in order to win this wonderful strug- 
gle. I think it was Kipling who in the early stages of 
the war said: "If we lose the lights of freedom go 
out over the whole world." I think that is true. I 
am persuaded that it is true, but I also am persuaded, 
I am convinced, that we dare not lose, we cannot 
lose, we will win. 

Just a word about our mission. We have come here 
for the purpose of endeavoring to unite the workers 
of Great Britain and of France and of Italy to stand 
with us and we with them in one solid phalanx to 
make good the declaration of American labor on 
March 12, 1917, to stand behind our respective gov- 
ernments in winning the war. 

You have done such wonderful things in Great 
Britain in raising an army as you have. You have 
held the line against the Hun, and we are profoundly 
grateful. Your line of ships were the last forces 
against which the Hun would have to go. You have 
turned out wonderful products in quality as in quan- 
tity. 

We have sent over about one and a half millions of 
our fighting forces, the best we have of our fighting 
boys, to join with and fight with your men. 

The men and the women of labor of America are' 
bent upon the production of the fullest quantity and 
quality of all that is necessary for our fighting boys, 

[234] 



MILITARISM MUST BE DESTROYED 

not only of America, but for the people and soldiers 
of our allied countries. May I state here two facts 
that stand out as to what we are trying to do ? About 
eight weeks ago one of the great shipyards in the 
United States offered a prize if the men in the yard 
drove one half million of rivets within a week. The 
prize was given, and about two weeks before our de- 
parture from the United States the company gave a 
banquet in honor of the men in the same yard with 
the same tools who had driven more than a million 
rivets in a week. You know, or have read, that a few 
weeks ago a ship was launched within twenty-seven 
working days from the time its keel was laid. Last 
Monday, two weeks ago, a twelve thousand ton steel 
vessel was launched within twenty-four working days 
from the time that its keel was laid. Our shipyards 
are busy, our men are working hard in factories and 
workshops and mills and mines. The men know that 
every blow struck with the hammer is a blow at Ger- 
man autocracy. 

In our country we have reached the point where 
representatives of labor are not only in the Cabinet, 
as in the Cabinet of Great Britain, but labor men are 
in the Council of National Defense, in every activity 
or agency of the government, both federal and munici- 
pal. We have not yet reached the stage of perfection. 
I am afraid we never shall, we will have to hope yet. 
We are making progress, we are bringing about a bet- 
ter understanding and cooperation; we are endeavor- 
ing to work out our problems and give whole-hearted 
support to this tremendous enterprise in which our Re- 
public is engaged. We realize nothing is nearly so im- 

[235] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

portant now as winning the war. In the meantime, we 
hope and expect, as we have the right to expect, that 
every effort shall be put forth that the standards of 
home life shall not go down, but that on the contrary, 
we may share each other's burdens and hopes and help 
in their realization. We are going to stand by you 
men. We hope and expect, as we confidently believe, 
that the sturdiness of Britain, the spirit of Belgium, 
the gallantry of France and the impetuosity and the 
spirit of America will win this war and give the oppor- 
tunity for the people to live the life of peace loving 
men and women; that we who were pacifists before 
this war and almost in the twinkling of an eye trans- 
formed into fighting men — that we would go along 
with the work of our everyday lives in working out 
this great problem of life and duty, aiming to attain 
the highest degree of unity and brotherhood, the high- 
est that the world has ever known. To help in such a 
crisis and to live in such a time and to contribute to 
this achievement is a privilege of which every human 
being should be proud. 



[236] 



WAR AGAINST WAR 

This is a war against war — the liberty-loving democra- 
cies of the world in a death struggle with the imperialistic 
militarists of Berlin. It is not a war of militarism against 
militarism. It is a war of the aroused populations of the 
democracies of the world fighting militarism. It is a war 
waged by the enraged civilian populations of the allied 
countries — uniformed, if you please — for the purpose of 
maintaining democracy, whose battle flags, adorned with 
wreaths of victory, shall be furled when that glorious 
jubilee shall be held to commemorate the return to earth 
of peace and good-will toward all mankind. 

Luncheon and reception tendered to the American Federa- 
tion of Labor Mission by the American Luncheon Club — 
Cafe Du Cardinal, Paris, France, September 26th, 1018. 

X FIND considerable difficulty in expressing myself 
■*■ after so flattering an introduction. 

It is indeed not only a matter of pleasure but of 
pride and satisfaction to find that wherever we go 
Americans, Frenchmen, Britishers, and Italians, and 
all who love freedom and justice and democracy are 
willing to say that the time has come in the world's 
affairs to acknowledge the important part which Labor 
is playing not only in the war but in the civilization 
for which we are striving. 

May I say this to you men, Americans in France, 
that I appreciate more than I can tell you the fact that 
under the auspices of your club, the American club in 

[237] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

Paris, you have helped to keep alive the embers and the 
flame of the unity of feeling between the people of 
France and the people of our own country. Is it 
necessary at this time and under these auspices to 
dwell upon the glorious history of France, her wonder- 
ful contributions to civilization, to science and art of 
the world, her valor, and the tremendous effort given 
by the people of France in the early days of our 
struggle to establish an independent nation at home? 
To you, and through you, I would say to the people of 
France: In this momentous and crucial hour we are 
now working to pay back the great debt of obligation 
we owe to you for what you did to make it possible 
for the Republic of the United States to be founded 
upon a strong basis and upon an idealism that will 
match your own. 

To us Americans, the name America, the term 
America, is not merely a name ; it is not merely a land ; 
nor is it merely a country. The name of America to 
us is a symbolism, an idealism, the apotheosis of all 
that is good and great and righteous. 

We, the people and the government of the Republic 
of the United States, are in this war to pay this debt 
of obligation. In addition we are in it to render to 
the world help in the struggle (or I might say better, 
the crusade) of this period, a period unparalleled in 
the history of the whole world; for now it is up for 
decision, finally and for all time, whether this world 
shall be governed by the principles and policies of 
autocracy, imperialism and militarism, or whether it 
shall continue under governments 'of peoples, for 
peoples, and by peoples, to live their own lives and to 

[238] 



WAR AGAINST WAR 

work out their own salvation as their best judgment 
and aspirations direct. 

We have not less than twelve millions of people 
who are either of German birth or extraction, and 
there is a great number of other nationalities repre- 
sented in our population. It was no easy matter to 
hold or concentrate the conscience and the activity 
and the willingness to sacrifice of all these peoples 
into one common great mass. I confess that many of 
us Americans were impatient at the hesitancy and the 
unwillingness to enter into the war earlier; but I am 
free to admit that our impatience and our impetuosity 
were nothing as compared to the good judgment of the 
President of the United States. His great mind and 
conscience and understanding fully realized the psy- 
chology of the situation. When the time came, he 
proved himself to be not only a statesman but a tribune 
of the hard thinking people of the world; and now, 
to use an American localism, we are in it "up to the 
hilt." 

There is somehow an idea among the representa- 
tives of autocracy that there is nothing efficient except 
an autocratic form of government; that democracies 
are impotent and inefficient, and that in our country 
we go along in our own way, everybody for himself 
and his satanic majesty taking the hindmost. We 
went along in our own way, blundering along, if you 
please, and yet maintaining the blessings of freedom 
and democracy where an individual had the chance to 
assert himself and live his own life and even to aspire 
and struggle for something yet better. It was not 
difficult for the Kaiser and his advisers to look with 

[239] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

contempt upon the power, or the possibility of the 
exercise of power, of a democratic people such as we 
find in France, in England, and in the United States; 
and so he counted first with disregard as to France, 
with contempt for Great Britain and with ridicule for 
the United States. 

Well, there is one thing with which autocracy never 
counts. We are told that somehow even those en- 
gaged in expert criminality always leave some foot 
prints, some slight evidence behind which generally 
leads to identification and conviction. And so with the 
Imperial German government. That autocracy failed 
to reckon with the human side of democracy. It failed 
to acknowledge or to understand when the conscience 
and the heart of a people are aroused; that when a 
democracy is aroused to a point of resentment, of 
righteous indignation, there is no power on earth 
which can withstand its mighty march forward and 
onward. 

American labor, despite the fact that there is 
represented within its ranks men of all nationalities, 
met in solemn conference on March 12, 19 17, and 
there was conceived the position which the workers 
of America should take — whether we would be per- 
mitted to enjoy the priceless privilege of peace or 
whether we would be thrust or dragged into the mael- 
strom of war. By unanimous vote we made a declara- 
tion.* 

That declaration was unanimously adopted on 
March 12, 1917. On April 2, the President of the 

* Mr. Gompers then read the four closing paragraphs of the 
declaration of March 12, 1917. See appendix, page 294. 

[240] 



WAR AGAINST WAR 

United States, Woodrow Wilson, appeared before the 
Congress of the United States and presented that 
scathing indictment against the Imperial Government 
of Germany. I am not going to attempt to connect 
the two, but I think you must know that the President 
must have had some misgivings as to the situation at 
home, whether behind him and the government would 
stand the united support of Labor of America. At 
any rate, whether there be any cause or effect, the 
President did present the case against Germany 
through our Congress on April 2, three weeks after 
our declaration, and four days afterwards the Con- 
gress of the United States declared that a state of war 
existed between the United States of America and the 
Imperial Government of Germany. I may say this, 
that at the convention of the American Federation of 
Labor succeeding this declaration the indorsement was 
given by unanimous vote. The convention of the 
American Federation of Labor held in June last 
emphasized that declaration and declared that until the 
German people shall have crushed autocracy for them- 
selves, or we shall have crushed autocracy for them, 
we will not meet with the representatives of the enemy 
countries. 

I saw in the English edition of a Paris publication 
that a statement was made yesterday by a representa- 
tive of the Imperial Government of Germany that the 
American people and the American government are 
the most bellicose in this war. Well — I see there are 
no ladies here — what in hell did we get into the 
war for! We did not enter into the war to arrange 
for a nice tea party with a country which will author- 

[241] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

ize and permit, or order murder and pillage, a country 
whose people permit its spokesmen and representatives 
to direct the overrunning and ravaging of a neutral 
nation, who countenance savagery and brutality, the 
outrage of innocent women and children, and sending 
to untimely graves men, women and children on peace- 
ful ships engaged in lawful pursuits. 

I have been informed while sitting at this table that 
a proclamation has been issued by the German mili- 
tary authorities declaring that it is useless and will 
avail nothing even should the allied armies drive the 
German armies farther and farther back; that there 
will be found nothing but waste land and every living 
or standing thing destroyed. How can they think that 
we consider this a tea party? Those who have lived 
by the sword must perish by the sword. 

This is a war against war — the liberty-loving 
democracies of the world in a death struggle with the 
imperialistic militarists of Berlin. It is not a war 
of militarism against militarism. It is a war of the 
aroused populations of the democracies of the world 
fighting militarism. It is a war waged by the enraged 
civilian populations of the allied countries — uni- 
formed, if you please — for the purpose of maintain- 
ing democracy, whose battle flags, adorned with 
wreaths of victory, shall be furled when that glorious 
jubilee shall be held to commemorate the return to 
earth of peace and good-will toward all mankind. 

We are in this war, we are in this crusade, and I 
want you men of affairs, you men of America now in 
France, to bear in mind that there is not only up for 
decision the destruction of autocracy and the relations 

[242] 



WAR AGAINST WAR 

between nation and nation, but that there must come 
new relations between man and man. We have come 
to understand what manhood means — the willingness 
to sacrifice, the willingness to give, the willingness to 
do and to dare and to die for a common ideal, and 
out of it will come a new life. When this war began 
I never in my life felt so depressed and heart-sore for 
my ideal for international peace was destroyed and I 
regretted it so, so sorely was I hurt ; but there is some 
power which will shape our destinies, rough-hew them 
as we will. Probably, it might not have come about in 
any other way. An autocracy, an imperialism, was 
endeavoring to impose itself upon the world; and the 
conscience and the heart of the peoples of the demo- 
cratic countries responded nobly and eagerly to make 
the sacrifice, whatever it might be, willing to pay the 
price, whatever it might be. Now that we are in the 
war, and I am speaking candidly and honestly from 
the innermost recess of my soul, I do not regret that 
the war has come, for I believe that never in the 
history of the world at any other time could 'the 
peoples of the democratic countries have become thor- 
oughly united in this common cause -as they now are. 
And so the fight is on and the Hun is on the run, 
with the strength of body and mind and materials we 
will keep them running until at least they are driven 
out of the countries they have invaded and ravaged. 
When they are back in their own country if they talk 
peace, real peace, we will take our time to consider it. 
The principles involved in this war must be definitely 
determined, and while I should hate to have one life 
to be lost unnecessarily, and the war prolonged one 

[243] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

minute longer than is essential, yet I say that it is 
better that the war should go on, that all the sacrifices 
that may be necessary be borne to determine, finally 
and for all time, the great causes and principles in- 
volved, than that a premature peace be negotiated, 
thereby transferring to the shoulders of our children 
or the coming generations another war of probably 
greater dimensions and horrors within five, ten, 
twenty, thirty or forty years. 

I may say that our men and women at home are 
working, are bending their backs to the task before 
them; they are producing materials. You heard a 
few weeks ago of a ship having been launched within 
twenty-seven working days from the time the keel 
was laid; just a brief time thereafter a twelve thou- 
sand ton steel ship was launched within twenty-four 
working days from the time that her keel was laid. 
That is simply a type of the character of the work 
that our men and our women are doing. 

To help bring about a better feeling between the 
working people of France and their employers, and 
the working people of France and the American em- 
ployers here, I want to say this to you, American 
business men and employers and publicists : It is only 
within recent years that the working people of France 
have secured the right of free association. They are 
human, like you and me, and likely to err, just like 
you and me, but I want you to help to give these men 
and women of labor of France the opportunity of 
understanding their employers and the American em- 
ployers in France. I want you to recognize the right 
of the workers to organize and to come to you and to 

[244] 



WAR AGAINST WAR 

sit down with whatever may be a disagreement be- 
tween you, and then to reach an agreement upon the. 
basis of common sense and common right. I know of 
nothing that would more greatly assist in bringing 
about a better, a more democratic and a more com- 
mon sense patriotic labor movement in France than 
such a course pursued by the American employers 
in France. It would set a worthy example for the 
French employers in France who still live in the men- 
tal surroundings of the fifteenth century when they 
were working with their vassals and their slaves. I 
appeal to you, my fellow countrymen, that it will help 
our employers and labor men in working out our com- 
mon cause at home for you to set an example in France 
of the spirit of common unity and recognition that in 
America we are men with sovereign rights, no matter 
what position in life we occupy. 

Just this one word more. I want to tell you men 
that we are in the game to the finish. There are no 
qualifications about it. I know you are doing your 
share, but I present this thought to you as I have be- 
cause of the reconstruction time which is to come, the 
great economic and social problems which must be 
determined and settled and the details of which must 
not leave in the hearts of the masses of the people the 
rancor of injustice. Do your share, and we will do 
our share. Let us try to do the best we can. 

All glory to France, glorious France, whose every 
page of history I revere, whose gallant men and won- 
derful women are entitled to our tribute, our respect 
and our love. All glory to our own beloved America, 
to the two sister republics entwined and to all our 

[245] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

allied democratic countries fighting together in this 
struggle to attain victory fraught with the highest 
civilization possible in the aspirations of the human 
mind and heart. 



[246] 



LAST MAN AND LAST DOLLAR FOR 
FREEDOM 

We are with you, men of Italy; we are with you, men 
of France; we are with you, men of Belgium; we are with 
you, men of England. We say to-day that this murderous 
German militarist machine must be destroyed. We will 
give, to the last man, and the last dollar, to achieve that 
great purpose. 

Official lunch and reception tendered by the Italian Gov- 
ernment to the American Federation of Labor Mission, 
Grand Hotel, Rome, Italy, October 8, 1018. 

WANT you to believe me that I profoundly feel 
A the responsibility of replying even in my humble 
way to the many expressions of kindness, sympathy 
and appreciation. It is most difficult to be able to 
express all that is in one's heart, all that one feels, all 
that one thinks, all that one strives to attain and con- 
tribute toward the achievement of a common idealism. 
But may I say this to you? I think that since my 
associates and I have trod upon the European shores, 
we have become convinced beyond any peradventure 
of a doubt, that the heart and the conscience of the 
manhood of our allied countries ring true to our com- 
mon cause. There may be one here and there who 
dares lift up his voice and say that he is not in accord 
with us in this great struggle; but so it has been from 
time immemorial in every struggle in the history of 

[247] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

the human family. Some men, through ignorance, 
others from pure perversity, fail, or refuse, to make 
common cause with those who are fighting for a right- 
eous cause. From the early Christian period, men 
have dared to believe in the hope of human brother- 
hood. Too many — not always. — but too many have 
indicated "thumbs down." So it was with the Cru- 
sade, and so it was in the American Revolution — the 
Revolution of the American colonists for the estab- 
lishment of an independent nation founded upon the 
rights of man and the inalienable right of life, liberty 
and the pursuit of happiness. There were some who 
fought in America against the establishment of those 
principles. 

In the French Revolution there were some who 
stood by the old guard against that revolution which 
recognized the equality of opportunity among men. 

And so with our Civil War at home in America, 
fought to maintain the Union of our Republic and to 
abolish human slavery — even there some negroes 
fought against their own emancipation. . 

And now, in this great crisis, there are some who 
dare lift up their voices against their emancipation 
and the liberties of the whole world. Well, these 
are some of the difficulties and contradictions which 
appear in the expressions of human nature. Probably 
it might be better called nonhuman nature. 

The American labor movement — the American 
Federation of Labor — is an institution which stands 
for justice and democracy. We find in our Republic 
the men who dare think, and thinking, dare speak, and 
speaking, dare to do for the right. We have not al- 

[248] 



LAST MAN AND DOLLAR FOR FREEDOM 

ways been in agreement with the government of our 
country, but that is our own internal affair. But in 
this great struggle we find that the government and 
the Congress of our country and the President of the 
United States are the joint leaders of this movement 
of the Republic of America to express in word and 
thought and action the willingness to sacrifice to the 
last man that the principles for which Washington 
and the colonists fought, shall not die to-day. We are 
with you, men of Italy; we are with you, men of 
France; we are with you, men of England; we are 
with you, men of Belgium; we say to-day that this 
murderous German militarist machine must be de- 
stroyed. We will give, to the last man and the last 
dollar, to achieve that great purpose. 

Men of Italy, your history is not unknown to us, 
nor is it lost to us — all that you have said and done, 
the heroes of battle and of thought, you men, your 
progenitors who have dared to think, who have dared 
to speak and who have dared to die for the truth ! Is 
the life of Messini not dear to us? Do we forget 
Garibaldi and Bantisti ? Are their lessons of no value 
to us? We, the children and the representatives of 
Washington, Jefferson and Franklin, of Lincoln and 
Wilson, bring to you the voice and the message of the 
masses of the people of America that, come what may, 
the opportunity to live the life of free men must be 
maintained at any sacrifice. 

I sometimes feel concern as to whether you and I 
are going to prove ourselves worthy of the men who 
have gone before and whether we are going to receive 
the condemnation or the commendation of those who 

[249] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

are to come after us, those who will curse us or bless 
us as we perform or fail to perform our duty in our 
time. I am afraid of myself, for I am carried along 
with enthusiasm, and, if I may say, the impetuosity of 
a man who has flung all guard to the winds and who 
aims to be of some help and of some service, not only 
to the people of his own time but to the men and the 
women of the future. 

I would be afraid to revel in my own conscience if 
I were not to give all that is in me in this crusade for 
justice. I would not want to live now one moment if I 
were to have the conscience or the conviction that the 
children who are to come after me, my sons and 
daughter, my grandchildren and those who follow 
them, would be ashamed to acknowledge that I was a 
man that had been untrue to our common ideals of 
justice and democracy. I want to be true to the men 
who fought and made it possible for the people of 
Italy and the people of Great Britain and the people 
of France and the people of the United States to enjoy 
the freedom that we now have. I want to be true 
to my fellows of to-day and to help hand down the 
spirit of fredom to the generations yet unborn. 

Pardon me, if you may think or suspect that there 
is a spirit of braggadocio or that there is a spirit of 
abandon in what I have said or in what I have tried 
to do; but I am so thoroughly conscious of the re- 
sponsibility resting upon the manhood of to-day that 
when opportunity comes, that which presses upon my 
tongue for utterance, I say. 

That which is in my heart and my soul, I want to 
convey to the men and women of Italy, and to my 

[250] 



LAST MAN AND DOLLAR FOR FREEDOM 

fellow compatriots in this great universal struggle of 
the world; that is, that, come what may in this cru- 
sade, a new life must result, new relations must be 
established betwen man and man, whereby no man 
shall look down upon the worker as a menial but that 
he shall be regarded as a man entitled to the full 
recognition and the stature of manhood ; that new re- 
lations must be established between nation and nation 
even to bring democracy and the hope for justice to 
the peoples of Austria and Germany. 

But until then, and so long as the peoples of the 
Central Powers take up arms against the representa- 
tives of democracy, they must be fought to a finish — 
beaten to their knees and made to understand that they 
are beaten — beaten beyond hope of the resurrection of 
their former military power. 

Thus you have heard the expressions of a man 
who, out of sixty-eight years, was sixty-four an ultra- 
pacifist. I speak to you now, not as a pacifist of to- 
day but as one who is willing to fight in order that a 
real peace, real, true internationalism and human 
brotherhood may be established. I am confident that 
any attempt to defeat our aims by maneuver, threats 
or propaganda will fail, equally as the military ma- 
chine of Germany and Austria has failed. Though 
sad at heart as we are at the sacrifices that have been 
and are being made, let us be joyous in the anticipa- 
tion of the new time that shall come as the result of 
victory, of triumph unequaled in the cause of Italy, of 
France, and of Great Britain; of the restoration of 
Belgium, Roumania and Serbia — when Russia shall 
be given an opportunity to stand on her feet unafraid 

[251] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

of German militarism; when Alsace-Lorraine shall 
be restored to France and when Italy also may come 
into her own, the wonderful Trentino and Trieste. 

The United States of America wants nothing what- 
ever out of this war. You cannot give us anything 
that we would take. What we want is not only for 
us to live in peace and unafraid for our freedom, but 
to know that the peoples of the nationalities of the 
world have an opportunity in the arts of peace, work- 
ing for their own salvation, working out their destinies 
and in the common cause vying with each other to 
bring about the great, the true ideal of international- 
ism and human brotherhood. 



[252] 



NO TIME FOR TRAITORS 

The man who won't fight to defend the liberty of his 
country is unworthy of the great privilege of enjoying free- 
dom in his country. 

Public meeting at Rome, Italy, October 8, ipi8, at 
Augusteo, Municipio di Roma. 

TT is indeed a source of great regret that I cannot 
■*■ address you in the Italian language. No matter 
how well my words may be interpreted, I wish I could 
appeal to you directly, not only to your hearts but to 
your minds and to your conscience. Accept this as- 
surance at the beginning, men and women in this great 
hall to-night ; I convey to you, and through you to the 
Italian people, the wonderful gratitude the people of 
America have for what you have already sacrificed 
and what you are ready to give in order that peace, 
a lasting peace, a desirable peace, shall be secured at 
the end of victory. 

For more than two hundred years there was the 
germ in the minds of the colonists of America which 
culminated in the Declaration of Independence and 
the establishment of a new nation, a Republic founded 
upon equal opportunities and rights of man, which 
gave to the world a new meaning of manhood, of the 
stature and character of manhood. You can, there- 
fore, vision that vast territory growing up with one- 

[253] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

hundred millions of people, with wealth untold and 
ingenuity and industry unsurpassed by any country on 
the face of the earth; her people living in peace, de- 
siring nothing but peace to work out their own sal- 
vation and to follow their own destinies, brought face 
to face with the murder of her people, with the menace 
to her liberties, with the horrors of war. 

America, the United States, has been in but five 
wars in its entire history; one the Revolution, which 
established it as an independent nation and Republic; 
the second, the war to maintain its integrity against 
aggression; the third, for the freedom of our south- 
western border; the fourth, the war for the altruistic 
purpose of securing and maintaining the independence 
of Cuba; and, fifth, this war for the freedom of the 
whole world. 

We had our Civil War, but that war was internal 
to maintain the integrity of the United States of 
America and to abolish human slavery. 

There never has been a cause in which the United 
States entered except upon a mission of mercy, of 
righteousness, of justice, and of freedom. 

When the nations of the world entered into a com- 
bination to punish the murderers during the Boxer up- 
rising in China, the Kaiser's troops robbed the people 
of China and brought their loot right to Potsdam 
palace in Germany. America, the United States, when 
China was compelled to pay indemnity, said we do not 
want your indemnity, we do not want, your money. 

Whether it be the incidents which I have mentioned 
or the many to which time forbids to make even a 
reference, there has been no action of an international 

[254] 



NO TIME FOR TRAITORS 

character which the United States of America has 
taken but that it had for its purpose to bring light and 
hope into the lives of the people. 

I make reference to these incidents only to empha- 
size the fact that the people and the government of the 
United States never would have entered into this war 
if it had not been because their sense of justice and 
humanity had been outraged by the murderous policy 
pursued by the Austrian and German military govern- 
ments. 

For more than fifty years the Central Powers have 
been preparing and organizing their military machine 
so that when the time seemed opportune these govern- 
ments might overrun the unprepared peoples of other 
countries. And then, after threatening the integrity 
and entity of Serbia, after over-running and ravaging 
Belgium, after invading France, they continued upon 
their mad policy of cold blooded murder of innocent 
people. Never in the history of the world, at least 
during the last fifty years, have innocent people on 
board of ships been murdered as was done in the case 
of the Lusitania, the Sussex, and many other vessels. 

I want you, my friends, to understand some situa- 
tions, which it is necessary to explain. Many have 
been impatient because the United States entered into 
the war so late ; but, my friends, bear this in mind. In 
the one hundred millions of people making up the 
population of the United States we have now more 
than twelve million of German birth or German ex- 
traction. In France the population is French. In 
England, the population is English. In Scotland, 
Scotch. In Italy, Italian. But in America, it is a con- 

[255] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

glomerate mass of all the peoples of the earth. Out 
of that conglomerate mass has come a new meaning 
of America, a solidarity and a determination that 
when the time had come and the people of the United 
States began to unite, then was the time to throw our 
whole power into this war. And we are now in the 
war, and Germany and Austria know it. Somehow or 
other I have a notion that the German and Austrian 
armies can not so valiantly face the men who carry 
the Stars and Stripes. 

And now, may I say this to you, for I desire to pre- 
sent a thought or two upon a subject more local in 
character than that of the war itself. In Italy, as in 
America, all the people are not united for the war, but 
those who are opposed to the war are not true 
Italians, nor are those in my country who are 
opposed to the war true Americans. In America, we 
have now nearly one hundred per cent of our people 
united for the war. In Italy there are some people 
who think they are talking but who, like monkeys, are 
merely jabbering for peace when they ought to be 
fighting for victory. That is the character of people 
I have in mind, and, let me say this, that if they are 
not paid with German money to carry on that work, 
they are fools, because they can get it. Some little 
time ago that group, which is constantly growing 
smaller in Italy, declared itself against the war. Now, 
they declare themselves indifferent, neutral. I won- 
der what any group of the same caliber would en- 
counter if they tried to be opposed to the war or to 
be neutral in Germany? In Germany there is no 
neutrality ; in Germany, there is no indifference ; either 

[256] 



NO TIME FOR TRAITORS 

the people must fight or they die. The man who 
won't fight to defend the liberty of his country is un- 
worthy of the great privilege of enjoying freedom in 
his country. 

The American Federation of Labor, the American 
labor movement, from the time of its foundation until 
the outbreak of this war, was the most powerful 
organization in the world for international peace. 
Pacifists, full and complete. As for myself, I be- 
longed to every peace society in America, but when 
the war broke out and I found the government of 
Germany armed by the most scientific methods to 
destroy and overrun the peaceful nations, I could no 
longer remain a pacifist. I have been transformed, 
as the labor movement of America has been trans- 
formed, into a fighting machine to crush militarism. 

America has given already two millions of her sons 
in the fighting on the battle fronts of our allied coun- 
tries. We have given of our wealth. We are going 
to give five million men, and more, if necessary. And 
if we give our life's blood in this common cause, we 
should have something to say as to those who stand 
in the way of our victory. I may take this occasion 
and opportunity to say that no matter who they may 
be, if enemies through ignorance or perversity, or be- 
cause they are incapable of understanding the issues 
involved, whether consciously or unconsciously they 
are German agents, they would better get out of the 
way before the aroused conscience and indignation of 
the liberty-loving peoples of the world drive them into 
oblivion. 

We are not going to permit, if we can help it, a 
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AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

repetition of what occurred a few months ago with the 
Italian troops, at Caporetti, when the Austrians said: 
"Throw down your arms, Kamerad, Kamerad, Kam- 
erad." And then when the Italian troops threw down 
their arms, they killed them, and outraged their 
women and slaughtered their children. No such com- 
radery must prevail henceforth in this war. When 
the German army and the Austrian army surrender, 
then they may call "Kamerad," but not before. 

And, now, I want to refer, however briefly, to some- 
thing also local and in connection with the American 
labor movement and the American Labor Mission now 
in Italy. In Rome there is published a sheet which 
is an insult to the intelligence of the people of Rome. 
It is an insult to the honor and character of every 
decent man and woman the world over. The "Avanti" 
has knowingly published the most scurrilous, vicious 
and malicious untruths regarding the American Feder- 
ation of Labor and the American labor movement, 
including the speaker who stands now before you. It 
is all well enough for men to differ, for newspapers to 
differ, from any group of people or individuals, but 
willfully to misrepresent and misstate facts is indefen- 
sible before the conscience of men. The American 
Federation of Labor consists of wage workers ex- 
clusively, and no one can join the unions affiliated with 
the American Federation of Labor unless that one is 
a wage earner. The officers of our unions are wage 
earners, selected by the membership for service. 

I will stop here for a moment to say that I am 
sure I am giving the "Avanti" the opportunity to 
attack me, to-morrow or next week, even more sav- 

[258] 



NO TIME FOR TRAITORS 

agely than in the past, and they are quite welcome. 

The statement that Italian workers in America are 
excluded from the American Federation of Labor was 
made to prejudice the minds of the Italian people 
against our Mission. This is not a misstatement ; it is 
not a bare untruth ! It is a malicious lie, uttered con- 
sciously to deceive the people of Italy. To prejudice 
the minds of the people of Italy against our move- 
ment, the salaries of the officers have been printed and 
commented upon. Well, as a matter of fact, my 
friends, you know that in America the cost of living 
has gone up higher than you ever dreamed of here 
in Italy, and, further, there are the taxes which are 
required to be paid upon any salary. Then, again, 
you know that the workmen of Italy may receive four, 
five, six, eight, or ten lires to-day and that there are 
men working in other countries for ten cents a day, 
and what would be said in those countries about the 
salaries of the functionaries of "Avanti"? 

Another attack was that the conference of Labor 
and Socialists of London last month was a "Gompers' 
Conference." The fact is that we had five delegates 
at that conference of more than eighty delegates. 
With five delegates, I, Gompers, ran away with the 
convention and made it a "Gompers' Conference," 
according to "Avanti" — seventy-five delegates against 
five of us ! I hold in my hand a copy of the proposals 
the American delegates submitted to the London con- 
ference. The conference adopted them. The con- 
ference recognized that the American labor movement 
held the right position and adopted our proposals. 
If five men could control a conference of more than 

[259] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

eighty, it does seem that the five had the intelligent 
and righteous position to propose. 

"Avanti" and that coterie or group was not repre- 
sented in London — it was too cowardly to be repre- 
sented in London. They could not stand face to face 
with the men representing the American labor move- 
ment, after having so foully slandered them. 

Since the arrival of my associates of the American 
Labor Mission and myself in Rome, we have had con- 
ferences with every important group, no matter what 
they represented — socialists, trade unionists, Italian 
labor unions, government officials, public men and 
women. To any one who wanted to have a conference 
we gave the opportunity. Arrangements were made 
and the "Avanti" group was told that if they wanted 
to have a conference with us, we would meet them. 
The time was set for this afternoon, but the cowards 
did not have the courage to come to us ; they sent word 
that they would not meet us. 

If there be any of the "Avanti" crowd or group 
here, you will have to-morrow and next week and 
next year to assail me, but you have not got the cour- 
age to face me man to man. I know that what I have 
said this evening will not silence "Avanti" and that 
group, but, on the contrary, that they will lie more — 
if they can — invent more lies; but I want to say that 
if this is the last word that I utter in Rome or in Italy, 
I hurl it back into the faces of the men who dare in- 
sinuate that the labor movement and its men of Amer- 
ica are not one hundred per cent true to the common 
cause of Labor and the masses of the people. 

You are all so busy in your work that you may not 
[260] 



NO TIME FOR TRAITORS 

know of a few incidents each important in itself. I 
want to relate them briefly. 

In 1912, the British government put forth the pro- 
posal for a Naval holiday, the idea being to stop build- 
ing war vessels and producing arms and munitions, 
that program to be limited and reduced by agreement 
with all the countries of the civilized world. The 
American Federation of Labor took up that proposal 
and, by unanimous vote, passed a resolution declaring 
in favor of the proposition, and asked the government 
of the United States to support the proposal. The 
House of Representatives (the Chamber of Deputies 
of the United States) adopted the resolution. The 
convention of the American Federation of Labor di- 
rected that I should get into correspondence with the 
labor movements of the different countries, so that 
these labor movements might prevail upon their gov- 
ernments to enter into the agreement. I sent copies 
of that resolution to Carl Legien at Berlin, asking him 
as the official executive of the International Secretariat 
to send these communications to the labor movement 
of the different countries. What was his answer? 
He could not, and would not do it. I make this state- 
ment with compliments to "Avanti." 

The American Federation of Labor adopted a reso- 
lution declaring that the labor movements of the sev- 
eral countries should send delegates to a World Labor 
Conference at the same time and place where the offi- 
cial delegates from the countries would be when draw- 
ing up the peace treaty. I sent that resolution to Carl 
Legien, and he answered that it would be impossible 
for him to participate or act in any way upon such a 

[261] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

resolution; he said further it would be utterly ridicu- 
lous. 

The coal miners of America, in 1912, sent a dele- 
gation to Karlsbad to participate in an international 
conference of coal miners from the several countries. 
The American Coal Miners' Union instructed its dele- 
gates to present to the conference a proposal that if 
any country should break the peace of the world, that 
if international peace was threatened, the miners of 
all the countries would stop mining coal. What was 
the position taken by the German delegates? They 
said : "We cannot remain in this conference ; we will 
not remain in this conference; we won't vote against 
this resolution, but unless it is withdrawn, we will 
leave the conference at once." Mark you this; in 
order that the international movement of coal miners 
might not be destroyed, the miners of America had to 
withdraw their proposal. 

In 1912-13, the German Socialists in the Reichstag 
supported the government by increasing the budget to 
more than one milliard of marks in order to increase 
the army, the navy and armaments, but at the same 
time the propaganda went through Italy, through 
France, through England, and through all the other 
countries of the world not to increase the army and 
navy budgets of these governments. 

In the United States of America, we have a so- 
called Socialist party. That party is not American. 
It is simply a German adjunct of the German Socialist 
party and the German propaganda. The three con- 
trolling members of that party are — you know their 
names — Adolph Germer, Victor Berger, and Morris 

[262] 



NO TIME FOR TRAITORS 

Hilquit, three Americans with German names, German 
in sympathy, in cooperation, and in trying to divide 
America and our allied countries. I mention these in- 
cidents with my compliments to "Avanti" and that 
group. 

Now, a word concerning a more important matter 
than even the pro-Germans in Italy. I have reference 
to the proposal of the Central Powers for an armi- 
stice. Bear this in mind, that that is one of the maneu- 
vers of the Central Powers to divide the people of the 
allied countries. The American answer, in so far 
as I can anticipate the answer of the American people, 
is this: Before you can talk peace with us, back 
from Serbia, back from Roumania, back from Bel- 
gium, back from France, back from Italy, and into 
your own territory, and then we may talk peace with 
you. Yes, and back from Russia, too. 

America is determined, the American labor move- 
ment is determined, that if war cannot be abolished 
entirely, then at least there shall come a long period 
of peace, and that war shall be postponed and an 
opportunity afforded to reach a decision upon any con- 
troversy between nations — a league of nations — to 
settle all questions by reason and upon the principles 
of justice and right. 

In America, the labor movement stands behind the 
government, and behind President Wilson. We stand 
behind him not because he is President, but because he 
is right and because he is the spokesman for freedom 
and democracy for all the nations of the world. In 
the American labor movement, we have declared that 
we will firmly stand upon the fundamental principles 

[263] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

of the right to maintain the standards of life, and 
while fighting in Europe for freedom we are not going 
to lose it at home. 

The American labor movement, the American men 
and women, the toilers, are working hard, bending 
their backs to the task of producing all that may be 
necessary to supply to the soldiers and the civilian 
populations, aye, if necessary, to all of our Allies, to 
win the war. And you, and you, and you soldiers in 
uniform, you sailors in uniform, men of Italy, 
and you who have done service and suffered, and who 
will face the fight again, I appeal to you as one who 
has his own flesh and blood in the ranks of 
the fighting forces in France, in Flanders, in Italy, 
wherever there is a battle front, I say to you, my 
friends, my comrades, you in the fighting forces, and 
we in the producing forces, we are behind you and 
your brothers in arms; we are with you, the real 
people of Italy; we are behind the people of our allied 
countries, and we will never consent to lay down our 
arms until the murderous military machine of Ger- 
many and Austria is crushed and the ability to launch 
again upon the world such a catastrophe as they have 
shall be eliminated for all time to come. 



[264] 



THE NATION'S TRIBUTE TO GOMPERS 

We, in our land, expect to live our own lives and work 
out our own problems. As a result of this war there must 
come a new understanding of the rights of man. As a 
result of this war there must come new relations, not only 
between nation and nation, but between man and man. 

National reception to Mr. Gompers under the auspices of 
the American Alliance for Labor and Democracy, upon the 
return from Europe of the Labor Mission of which he was 
chairman, Auditorium Theater, Chicago, November 8th, 
1918. 

F AM more profoundly impressed than I can 
-*■ well express in words by all that is implied, 
as well as demonstrated, in this great gathering 
to-night. An over-attempt at modesty is in it- 
self a species of vanity and I would not have you be- 
lieve for a moment that I lack appreciation of all that 
has been said and all that it implied insofar as I may 
be concerned, but I would prefer, much prefer, that 
at least the main part of all this great gathering and 
the sentiment which has produced it shall be inter- 
preted as a tribute to the great labor movement of 
which I am proud to be a member. 

Men in their own lives have attempted to do and 
to give the best that was within them. Time, oppor- 
tunity, and circumstance were lacking. But I hold 
that the man who has done his level best in the cause 

[265] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

of righteousness and of justice and of freedom, and 
who failed in his attempt, is entitled to as much pro- 
found gratitude as the man who has had the great- 
est success in his life. No man can do better than 
his best! 

And so it has been my aim, so it has been my pur- 
pose, to endeavor to help develop a spirit of democracy 
among my fellow-workers, that the great tributes 
shall not go to any one man but to the great mass, to 
the thought and movement of which we are a part. 

Perhaps one of the circumstances causing adverse 
criticism more than any other during the recent trip 
of my associates and myself was the fact that the peo- 
ple on the other side of the Atlantic have not yet 
learned the meaning and the practical application of 
the principles of democracy. 

I have reference particularly to the fact that they 
have been so accustomed to pay tribute to the man or 
woman actually or figuratively at the head of their 
governments, that, even in civil capacities and in civic 
life, the man at the head of a mission is accorded all 
the honors, to the neglect of the men forming part of 
that mission. And it was necessary for your humble 
servant, as the Chairman of the mission, practically 
to hold on to his associates in order that they might 
not be shoved out of the gathering. I really did not 
intend even privately, much less publicly, to make men- 
tion of this typical fact, except that I now want to 
emphasize with whatever power there is in me, the 
thought and the fact that the principles of democ- 
racy do not flash in the air, they are not fanciful, they 
are not theoretical, for if they are thought of in that 

[266] 



THE NATION'S TRIBUTE TO GOMPERS 

fashion, they lose their potency and virility and ef- 
fect. Democracy must be practiced and acted every 
day of our lives to be true. 

I would not want any of you, ladies and gentlemen, 
to imagine that I have in my mind the possibility that 
leadership can be dispensed with, that leadership car- 
ries with it no responsibility, as well as dignity and 
respect. On the contrary, I believe now more than 
ever that the men placed in responsible positions and 
true to the trust reposed in them, deserve the re- 
spect and gratitude of a loyal democratic people, and 
I want to call to the attention of my fellow 
countrymen the fact, that unless the principles 
of democracy are practiced in our every day lives we 
shall, assuredly as the sun rises and sets, lose the 
power of democracy because we have not used that 
function in our lives. 

Mr. Chairman, Brother Duncan, Jim; the men and 
the women who sent their messages here; the rank 
and file of our people who may have their vision di- 
rected here to-night: I want you to believe that I 
feel all that has been said and all that has been im- 
plied and left unsaid, that I have a more profound 
appreciation and, in the innermost recesses of my soul, 
a deeper gratitude than I can express. I can only 
hope that what of life may be left to me will give you 
and them no cause to regret the respect and the con- 
fidence expressed for and in me, for it is, after all, 
all that one can do — to try and give service to his fel- 
lows; and if the trying is worthy of appreciation, I 
have tried. 

It was a great mission entrusted to my associates 
[267] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

and myself, a mission to convey the messages of fra- 
ternity, good will, cooperation and sacrifice, that the 
opportunity to live the lives of free men and women 
shall not be crushed from the face of the earth; the 
message that America had risen to the stature of her 
greatness and thrown herself across the path of the 
conquering Hun. It was a message that, if need be, 
our America would sacrifice and die rather than live 
the ignominy of cowardice. 

America is more than a country. America is more 
than a continent. America is more than a name. 
America is an ideal. America is the apotheosis of all 
that is right. 

Some people would have gladly — well, if not gladly, 
quite sadly — yielded to this great threatening power 
of the monarchical, military, autocratic machine of 
Germany. It is so easy, it is so comfortable not to 
get into the conflict. But it is the character and the 
willingness of a people to strive and to sacrifice that 
make happiness and peace possible. 

Paraphrasing Tennyson's well known lines, I say 
that in a great struggle it is better to fight and to lose 
than not to fight at all. 

Where a great principle is involved and men fail 
to defend it, where a great principle is involved and 
men refuse to make sacrifices to preserve it, there is 
no hope for them or for those who come after them. 
Fight for the right and even though you are defeated, 
the spark is still in the heart and the brain, handed 
down from father to son, from mother to daughter, 
and to later generations until finally that spark bursts 
into a flame and the torch of liberty is again alight. 

[268] 



THE NATION'S TRIBUTE TO GOMPERS 

I say this as a man who has seen sixty-eight years 
of life and who, for more than fifty years of that life, 
was one of the most active pacifists in the world, 
belonging to all the peace organizations of America 
and of the world, who as a pacifist gave his assist- 
ance to the movement of labor, to the movement of the 
men and women of other walks of life to maintain the 
peace of the world. It did not imply that when a 
marauder with his band of militant assassins went 
abroad to kill, to ravage, to destroy, that my paci- 
ficism could consistently shield the man or the men 
who would not fight to defend their wives and their 
little ones. 

The man or the men who would not fight in de- 
fense of freedom — the men who would not fight in 
defense of their country engaged in a righteous cause, 
are unworthy to live and enjoy the privileges of a 
free country. 

And so, whining, cowardly, beaten Austria, the 
puppet of Germany, the puppet of the Kaiser that de- 
manded the extermination of Serbia, is asking for 
peace and getting it, while the Serbians, driven out of 
their country, are going back. Austria-Hungary is 
an imperial government of the past. 

It was a great privilege and a pleasure to be upon 
the Belgian front and to find that the Belgian army 
had that very morning captured five thousand Ger- 
man soldiers. When that demand was made by the 
German Imperial Government ostensibly upon Serbia 
but actually, knowing the conditions and situation, 
upon England and France and Russia, there was made 
this one great mistake, which autocracy and imperial- 

[269] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

ism always make. As a criminal planning a crime, 
robbery or murder, with all the ingenuity of his class, 
always leaves something out of his reckoning, some 
trail which proves his undoing, so the imperialistic 
autocrats of Germany, with their preparation of half 
a century to perfect the greatest scientific military ma- 
chine that the world has ever known, took for granted 
that Belgium small, France frivolous, Russia a weak- 
ling, England indifferent and money-making — that 
they would not respond to the principles of justice and 
of right. It never entered into the minds of the auto- 
crats of Germany that America, this easy-going peo- 
ple of ours, a people engaged in labor, in business, in 
politics, could be united. It never entered their minds 
that this vast country of ours, with more than a hun- 
dred millions of people made up of all nationalities, 
could produce anything like a united spirit and a will- 
ingness to serve and to sacrifice. It was one of those 
great mistakes in the calculations of autocracy which 
believes nothing is efficient except power. 

The autocracy of Germany could not understand or 
feel what is meant by the practice of freedom and de- 
mocracy, and that once the soul of the people of our 
democracy was touched, they would stand united more 
thoroughly than the people of any country on the face 
of the globe; united and determined, come what 
might, that that freedom proclaimed in the Declara- 
tion of Independence, for which our forefathers gave 
up their lives and their possessions, should not perish 
from the earth ; a freedom fought for not only in or- 
der that America might be a new nation, a republic, 
but that the rights of man should have a new meaning. 

[270] 



THE NATION'S TRIBUTE TO GOMPERS 

The autocracy of Germany failed to understand 
what was meant by the struggle of our civil war to 
maintain the Union and to abolish human slavery. 
They did not know, — the autocracy of Germany could 
not comprehend, a war undertaken by the United 
States against Spain for the liberty of Cuba. 

The autocracy of Germany could not understand 
that a hundred millions of people within the confines 
of the United States of America could be or would be 
united to make safe for our people the traversing of 
the seas, united to avenge the lives of those who had 
been murdered on the Lusitania. 

We had been too often described as a nation whose 
ideal was the dollar mark. Never in the history of the 
world have a people responded with such alacrity, with 
such earnestness and willingness to serve and if need 
be to die, as have the people of our Republic in this 
cause. 

To-day, after my return, after all that I have seen, 
I am more proud than ever before in my whole life 
of my righteous claim to be an American. 

In the work of our American Federation of Labor 
Mission to England, to France, and to Belgium, our 
conferences with our men there, our public discussions 
with the men of labor and of other affairs there, we 
predicated our position upon the declared basis of the 
American labor movement, and we put forth our po- 
sition, not only upon the righteousness of our cause 
and our stand, but also upon the further fact, that we 
had two million of our own American boys, flesh of 
our flesh and blood of our blood, over there. 

We were giving, if need be, our boys and our 
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AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

women and the wealth produced by our hands and 
brain, and we had the right to have a say-so in every 
detail in which we were involved in this struggle. 

Before the United States entered into the war, it 
might have been regarded as gratuitous for us even 
to suggest a thing to any of the democratic nations in- 
volved in the struggle, but now that we are in the 
war up to the hilt, — well, nothing should be done by 
kings or cabinets or men of labor without the full con- 
sent of the representatives of our Republic. And it 
was with no mealy mouth that the American Labor 
Mission expressed their firm convictions. 

I call your attention to part of the declaration 
adopted by the conference of America's workers at 
Washington, the capital of our nation, on March 12th, 
19 1 7, where the Executive Council had summoned 
representative labor men, a declaration worthy of seri- 
ous consideration in every line and every word, now 
and for the future. The declaration insists that con- 
ditions of labor and freedom during any war which 
may come, or during the times of peace if peace should 
prevail, shall be built upon the basis of an American 
standard of life and work. Thus, American labor, 
American workers, stood one hundred per cent, be- 
hind the government and the President of the United 
States. 

I commend the declaration* to your serious thought. 
I am quite confident that as time goes on the utter- 
ances in it will become more and more important. I 
refrain from reading it because it is too lengthy. I 
will not even read the declaration made by the Lon- 

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THE NATION'S TRIBUTE TO GOMPERS 

don Inter-Allied Labor Conference of September.* I 
wish merely to call your attention to the fact that the 
American Labor Mission proposed and the conference 
adopted, not in the same words but in the same sense 
and purpose and meaning, the declaration of organ- 
ized labor in America made more than a year and a 
half before. 

The conference, which had declared its pacifism and 
some other things, was held in executive, or secret 
session, but at the demand of our mission and at the 
proposal of our mission, the conference in which we 
participated was held with the searchlight of public 
opinion right upon every delegate present. 

We held that we could not be consistent in de- 
nouncing secret diplomacy and at the same time hold 
executive, secret sessions ourselves. Whether the 
delegates liked it or not, they voted for open sessions. 
From that time we knew that America's position was 
right and would be endorsed. Men can not help being 
a little more decent in public than they may be in 
secret and private. 

The condition which we found to exist in our Al- 
lied countries was something to give us all concern. 
Every attempt that we made was combated by the 
pro-Germans, by the propagandists, by the pacifists 
and by the French and Italian Bolsheviki. The So- 
cialist Bolshevik press of those countries endeavored 
to forestall every move which we made or were about 
to make. 

In Italy, for instance, we were represented by this 
press as fakes and frauds and all that sort of thing; 

* See page 370 of appendix for this declaration. 
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AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

they said that we were not representing American la- 
bor, that we did not speak for it or in its name. Our 
answer was that the difficulty with these people is that 
whatever of a labor movement exists there it is usually 
dominated by some professor, some failure in pro- 
fessional life, who had gotten his fangs into the labor 
movement and usually poisoned it and destroyed it; 
that the American labor movement is composed of 
working men and working women and that the men 
in the official positions of our movement are the men 
who have been taken from the mine, from the shop, 
from the building; and that we had said, "Now, don't 
you build any more, don't you mine coal any more, 
don't you make brick any more; we want you to be 
our spokesman, our defender, our advocate." Such 
an attitude does not sit well in the crop of the so- 
called intellectuals of England, or France, or Italy, 
or even the United States. 

Our labor movement is conducted for the working 
people, is composed of the working people, is admin- 
istered by the working people. We said that we had 
fully four million organized workers in America, and 
the Avanti (literally translated into English, the Ad- 
vance), a Bolshevik organ, pretending to be an official 
Italian socialist paper, came back and said, "Well, 
Mr. Gompers may represent four million workmen in 
the United States, but he represents more millions of 
dollars." 

I mentioned each member of the mission and re- 
ferred to the trade at which he had spent the major 
portions of his life, giving my own as a cigarmaker 
who had worked at his trade for twenty-six years, and 

[274] 



THE NATION'S TRIBUTE TO GOMPERS 

I said there was not any member of our mission who, 
if he left the position he occupied and did not earn 
anything in three or six months, would not have to 
go to the poorhouse. 

As an interesting incident, when I got that far Mr. 
William Bowen, President of the Bricklayers, inter- 
rupted me and said, "You are mistaken, sir. I can 
live a year without it." 

I made this remark, intending to refute, to repudi- 
ate and to condemn the statement made that we rep- 
resented money of any character but I did say some- 
thing like this: "If I do represent dollars, no one 
has yet accused me of having received German dol- 
lars." 

And I made this inquiry : Can the publishers of the 
x Avanti, the official Socialist organ of Italy, honestly 
make the same claim? 

I shall not pay too great a tribute to my associates 
nor make any claim for myself. All I think I should 
say, and what I am justified in saying, is that we did 
try very hard, and succeeded to some degree, in 
putting some stiffening into the backbone of the 
people of the countries which we visited to make them 
stand behind their governments at least until after the 
war shall have been won. 

We have come back to our country more thoroughly 
American than ever, more thoroughly convinced that 
our people and our government stand out as a won- 
derful object lesson to the peoples of the whole world. 

We visited the fronts, the battlefields where shot 
and shell and deadly gas were thick; we were within 
the firing lines, in trenches, on ramparts, in the open 

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AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

field with the whizzing and the screaming of shells 
bursting in the distance upon enemy soil, and right 
within a radius of a few feet of where we stood. We 
saw the flames of Cambrai lighting the sky; we saw 
the great Monte Sec, which the valiant French 
soldiers for more than four years had endeavored to 
re-conquer and re-take without effect, and our boys, 
American boys, had just taken it, with one thousand 
prisoners. On the Piave, on the firing line within 350 
yards of the lines of the Austrian soldiers, we saw 
the battles ; we saw men falling from the clouds, their 
balloons or machines having been destroyed. Some 
of them, I do not know whether it was for their best 
good, with their parachutes over them, fell within the 
lines of the German army. We saw the German dead 
on the battlefield; we saw their horses, we saw their 
cannon abandoned; we saw cities and towns and vil- 
lages destroyed, annihilated, nothing left except crum- 
bled stone and brick to testify that a living, human 
being ever occupied them. 

No mind can conceive the actual facts and condi- 
tions we saw. Nine years ago, in connection with a 
mission for Labor, by direction of the American Fed- 
eration of Labor, I incidentally went to Naples and 
then to Pompeii and there I saw what the world called 
the City of the Dead. No living human being was 
there. There are pictures of the city in some of the 
books which discuss the magnificent art and archi- 
tecture. There are evidences of amphitheaters, of 
great public market places, of the racing of the chari- 
ots and the horses, and of the slaves. But in the cit- 
ies and towns and villages we saw, there was not the 

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THE NATION'S TRIBUTE TO GOMPERS 

slightest evidence that ever a human being trod upon 
that soil. 

You may see in pictures, you may read in stories, 
or you may have described to you by a tongue more 
eloquent and capable of description than my poor 
powers will permit, but it is not given to humankind 
to understand all of the awful destruction and devas- 
tation, the havoc wrought by the brutal German mili- 
tarist machine. 

We went to the hospitals, and the first aid units, 
where we saw Americans, lacerated and wounded and 
bereft of limbs; we saw not only all the horrors of 
these things but we also saw men who had been gassed, 
and hell in Dante's fertile mind contained nothing to 
equal the tortures of the men gassed by German Kul- 
tur. 

Time and circumstances prohibit an attempt at de- 
tail. The men of America, our country, our Repub- 
lic, our people, are not merely respected by the peo- 
ple of the allied countries of Europe, they are 
venerated. The name of America and the name of 
Wilson are constantly upon their lips, expressing the 
deepest sentiment of the people of all classes in the 
democratic countries allied to ours, all except the pro- 
Germans and the Bolsheviki, who are one and the 
same. 

America is acclaimed by the King and Queen of 
England, by President Poincare, by Clemenceau, 
Viviani, Joffre, by the workers of England and of 
France, by the workers and the masses of the people 
of Italy, by King Albert, by reviving Belgium, by 
Victor Emmanuel, the King of Italy, by all the great 

[277] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

men, by all the leading spirits, by the rank and file 
of the masses of the people of this generation — "Vive 
VAmerique! Vive Wilson!" on the tongues and the 
lips of all. 

There is not in all France or Italy any city or town 
or village in which you do not find a street, a boule- 
vard or a park named for Wilson. Traversing 
twenty miles of road uphill to reach the top of Monte 
Grappe, only a mile and a half high, the devious, ris- 
ing, winding course reaches, about the middle of the 
mountain, a little station where our boys get coffee 
and sandwiches, and, once in a great while, a piece of 
pie — there on that mountain is Via Wilson. 

We must be worthy of battle, we must be true to 
the altruism and to the sense of justice of the Repub- 
lic of the United States. One of the greatest mistakes 
of Germany was that she mistook her own position 
and she believed that she was profound when she was 
merely ponderous, that might and power and force 
were the only elements which could decide. Perhaps 
one of the greatest mistakes which German Kultur and 
diplomacy have made since the beginning of the war 
has been the treatment of Russia since Russia went 
out of the war. If Germany had entered into a 
treaty with Russia upon fair, liberal, generous terms, 
she would not only have won the respect of the peo- 
ple of Russia, but she would have made a profound 
impression upon the peoples and the governments of 
all the countries of the world, and, more than likely, 
would have made herself the dominant figure and fac- 
tor in the lives of the nations of the world. 

Of course, she might have regarded such a treaty 
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THE NATION'S TRIBUTE TO GOMPERS 

with Russia with no more respect that she regarded 
the treaty with Belgium — simply as a scrap of paper. 
She would then have gone in and whipped Russia and 
in turn taken all the generous provisions away. That 
is the idea of brute force — that nothing can win ex- 
cept power. The nation which has lived by the sword 
must and will perish by the sword. 

One, perhaps the greatest, of all the many wonder- 
ful utterances of our great President during this war, 
was the answer which he made in that very brief note 
to Austria. It broke the backbone of their morale. 
The hope was that Labor would be divided in the 
United States, that Labor would be divided in the 
other Allied countries and that the President and the 
governments of the Allied countries would be forced 
to make a premature peace favorable to Germany and 
to Austria. 

And our own wonderful Pershing, when standing 
before the tomb of Lafayette, called upon for an ad- 
dress, delivered himself thus: "Lafayette, we are 
here!" 

That phrase, that declaration is also on the tips of 
the tongues of the people of France. It was not my 
good fortune to have been a participant in the lunch- 
eon given to the American Labor Mission by Presi- 
dent Poincare of France and Mme. Poincare. The 
incident which forbade my being there is probably 
known to you, but at that luncheon, my associates 
told me, not only the President but Mme. Poincare, 
with tears falling upon her cheeks, sincerely expressed 
her great appreciation and gratitude to the soldiers 
and the manhood and womanhood of America, not 

[279] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

only for what we were now doing but for our first 
contribution that changed the tide of battle at Cha- 
teau Thierry last July. 

Ours was the only force, the only power left to 
save France and England. We were gratified with 
assurances of the same character, expressions of the 
same feeling of gratitude and veneration by the cab- 
inet of Great Britain and that great democrat, Lloyd 
George. 

We, in our land, expect to live our own lives and 
work out our own problems. As a result of this war, 
there must come a new understanding of the rights 
of man. As a result of this war, there must come 
new relations not only between nation and nation but 
between man and man. 

Our men and women have bent and are bending 
their backs to the task of producing the things 
upon which the armies and navies depend. Men and 
women of labor in America have done their full duty 
and will continue to do their full duty, and for the 
sacrifices which they have made out of their strength 
and health, for the sacrifices they have made upon the 
battlefield, freedom must not be lost to them in times 
of peace. They want an accounting of the steward- 
ship of our people, of what we have done and what 
we have failed to do to maintain the standard of life, 
the American standard of life, that no pauperization 
of the sisters and brothers and fathers and mothers 
shall occur while our boys are at the front. Mingling 
as they do, ditch-digger and the son of millionaire and 
business man, all of them in the same trench, in the 
same tent, sharing the same fare, the same hardships 

[280] 



THE NATION'S TRIBUTE TO GOMPERS 

and the same risks, — these men will come back to our 
country with glory and victory written into their very 
souls and they will want an accounting of our stew- 
ardship while they have been over there. 

They know that the peoples of the world, regard- 
less of where their countries may be, are now much 
nearer than before. Our American soldier boys are 
speaking French, are speaking Italian, and they will 
have a new lingo in which they can question us. 

They have gotten a broader vision and understand- 
ing. Their own lives and minds have become broad- 
ened. They have mingled with the English Tommies, 
the French Poilus and the Italians, all of whom have 
given them new thoughts, and the man or woman who 
can not answer straightforwardly to her boy or his 
boy when he comes back here will have a hard row 
to hoe. 

The war is nearly over, men and women. It was 
my great privilege to say, almost at the beginning of 
the war, that we hoped and expected that the German 
people themselves would crush militarism and au- 
tocracy from their country, but if they failed, by the 
gods, we would crush it for them. 

The alternative was either inside or outside. In- 
stead of their crushing their autocratic militarist ma- 
chine themselves, we have done it — are doing it — 
will continue to do it from the outside while some 
spirit of German democracy, or German desperation 
against the failure of that militarist machine, will 
help to establish democracy in Germany. 

We want to see this world governed by the peo- 
ple of the land, by the people who must work and 

[281] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

serve and pay, and they shall have a voice in deter- 
mining finally, once and for all, what the condition of 
service shall be. 

We want the Declaration of Independence to defend 
us, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happi- 
ness not to be a mere generality but the rule of every 
day life where every man shall be a king and every 
woman a queen by her own fireside. 

In the time now near at hand we have yet much to 
do. The war work campaign about to begin is just as 
essential now and for the future as has been any prep- 
aration for the military side of the war. Give serv- 
ice, contributions, payment, anything and everything 
for labor, for freedom, for justice, for democracy. 

When this war shall finally have been triumphantly 
closed, there will come the problem of reconstruction 
and rehabilitation. With the demobilization of our 
army and the men of our great fleets into civil life, 
we shall have either intelligent demobilization or 
rampant demoralization. 

To meet the new problems after the war will take 
the best thought of our best men and our best women, 
unselfish and true, with high consciences and high re- 
solves, determined to do right. 

It has been a terrible war, men and women. It has 
cost more lives and more sacrifice than any previous 
struggle in the history of the world ; it involved more. 

The Crusade was for an ideal. What was con- 
tained in our Revolutionary War, what was con- 
tained in Lincoln's immortal proclamation of free- 
dom for the black slave — all of these thoughts and 
ideals, made for a time or for a nation, are all in- 

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THE NATION'S TRIBUTE TO GOMPERS 

tended to be, and, with the intelligent cooperation of 
our people, will be the rules and regulations and the 
constitution of the nations of the whole civilized 
world. 

You and I, who have given our flesh and our blood 
as a contribution and as a sacrifice to this world strug- 
gle, may feel our losses keenly, but in the time to 
come when the story shall have been written, just as 
we praise and glorify the sacrifices of those who have 
gone before and made possible the life of the American 
people, so will generations of men and women yet 
unborn rise up and call us blessed for the service 
which we have done, for the sacrifices which we have 
made for glorious America, for the glory and the civ- 
ilization and the freedom and the justice of the peo- 
ples of the whole world, and then the song of the poet 
and the dream of the philosopher shall have been real- 
ized in the universal brotherhood of man. 



[283] 



PART II 
LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 
FOREWORD 

TN" order that the record of the American Federa- 
tion of Labor in connection with the great war 
may be complete in this volume, at least in its 
broader aspects, there are here set forth the principal 
official documents that the Federation has produced 
since the war began in 19 14. Together with the ad- 
dresses of President Gompers, these documents show 
the trend and development of official labor policy dur- 
ing the greatest stress and trial to which the modern 
world has ever been subjected. 

While the complete documentary record of the 
American Federation of Labor during the period cov- 
ered would fill not only one but several volumes, it 
has been deemed wise to limit the publication here to 
those sections of the reports of the Executive Coun- 
cil of the Federation and of the reports of the Fed- 
eration Committee on International Relations dealing 
with the war and the actions of the convention there- 
on. 

The declaration adopted by a conference of trade 
union officials in Washington on March 12, 1917, 
which is made a part of one of the Executive Council 
Reports, is deemed of sufficient importance, for the 
purposes of this volume, to be given precedence and 

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AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

printed out of its sequential order. It was in this 
meeting, held in Washington nearly a month before 
the United States entered the war, that organized 
labor determined upon the policy which has been con- 
sistently followed since that date. It is not too much 
to say that the document adopted at that meeting must 
have been a source of great strength and satisfaction 
to the National Administration, a reassurance, the 
value of which can scarcely be overrated. 

All of the documents here produced are reports and 
resolutions unanimously adopted in annual conven- 
tions of the American Federation of Labor, except 
the proposals of the American Federation of Labor 
Mission to the Inter- Allied Labor Conference at Lon- 
don September 17-20, 19 18. These proposals were 
based upon declarations of the A. F. of L. They 
were adopted by the Conference and will be submitted 
to the annual convention of the A. F. of L. June, 19 19. 



[288] 



AMERICAN LABOR'S POSITION IN PEACE OR 
IN WAR 

Washington, D. C, March 12, 1917. 

A conference of the representatives of the national and 
international trade unions of America, called by the Ex- 
ecutive Council of the American Federation of Labor, was 
held in the American Federation of Labor Building, March 
12, 1917, in which conference the representatives of affili- 
ated national and international trade unions and the rail- 
road brotherhoods participated. 

The Executive Council of the American Federation of 
Labor had the subject-matter for three days under advise- 
ment prior to the conference and submitted a declaration 
to the conference. The entire day was given over to a. 
discussion of the recommendation and such suggestions as 
were submitted. After a thorough discussion the follow- 
ing document was adopted by a unanimous vote: 

We speak for millions of Americans. We are not a sect. 
We are not a party. We represent the organizations held 
together by the pressure of our common needs. We rep- 
resent the part of the nation closest to the fundamentals of 
life. Those we represent wield the nation's tools and 
grapple with the forces that are brought under control in 
our material civilization. The power and use of industrial 
tools is greater than the tools of war and will in time 
supersede agencies of destruction. 

A world war is on. The time has not yet come when 
war has been abolished. 

Whether we approve it or not, we must recognize that 
war is a situation with- which we must reckon. The present 
European war, involving as it does the majority of civilized 
nations and affecting the industry and commerce of the 
whole world, threatens at any moment to draw all countries, 
including our own, into the conflict. Our immediate prob- 

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AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

lem, then, is to bring to bear upon war conditions instruc- 
tive forethought, vision, principles of human welfare and 
conservation that should direct our course in every eventual- 
ity of life. The way to avert war is to establish con- 
structive agencies for justice in times of peace and thus 
control for peace situations and forces that might otherwise 
result in war. 

The methods of modern warfare, its new tactics, its 
vast organization, both military and industrial, present 
problems vastly different from those of previous wars. 
But the nation's problems afford an opportunity for the 
establishment of new freedom and wider opportunities for 
all the people. Modern warfare includes contests between 
workshops, factories, the land, financial and transportation 
resources of the countries involved; and necessarily applies 
to the relations between employers and employees, and as 
our own country now faces an impending peril, it is fitting 
that the masses of the people of the United States should 
take counsel and determine what course they shall pursue 
should a crisis arise necessitating the protection of our 
Republic and defense of the ideals for which it stands. 

In the struggle between the forces Of democracy and 
special privilege, for just and historic reasons the masses 
of the people necessarily represent the ideals and the insti- 
tutions of democracy. There is in organized society one 
potential organization whose purpose is to further these 
ideals and institutions — the organized labor movement. 

In no previous war has the organized labor movement 
taken a directing part. 

Labor has now reached an understanding of its rights, 
of its power and resources, of its value and contributions 
to society, and must make definite constructive proposals. 

It is timely that we frankly present experiences and 
conditions which in former times have prevented nations 
from benefiting by the voluntary, whole-hearted coopera- 
tion of wage-earners in war time, and then make sugges- 
tions how these hindrances to our national strength and 
vigor can be removed. 

War has never put a stop to the necessity for struggle 
to establish and maintain industrial rights. Wage-earners 
in war times must, as has been said, keep one eye on the 

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LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

exploiters at home and the other upon the enemy threaten- 
ing the national government. Such exploitation made it 
impossible for a warring nation to mobilize effectively 
its full strength for outward defense. 

We maintain that it is the fundamental step in pre- 
paredness for the nation to set its own house in order and 
to establish at home justice in relations between men. 
Previous wars, for whatever purpose waged, developed 
new opportunities for exploiting wage-earners. Not only 
was there failure to recognize the necessity for protecting 
rights of workers that they might give that whole-hearted 
service to the country that can come only when every 
citizen enjoys rights, freedom and opportunity, but under 
guise of national necessity, Labor was stripped of its means 
of defense against enemies at home and was robbed of 
the advantages, the protections, the guarantees of justice 
that had been achieved after ages of struggle. For these 
reasons workers have felt that no matter what the result 
of war, as wage-earners they generally lost. 

In previous times Labor had no representatives in the 
councils authorized to deal with the conduct of war. The 
rights, interests and welfare of workers were autocratically 
sacrificed for the slogan of "national safety." 

The European war has demonstrated the dependence of 
the governments upon the cooperation of the masses of 
the people. Since the masses perform indispensable service, 
it follows that they should have a voice in determining the 
conditions upon which they give service. 

The workers of America make known their beliefs, their 
demands and their purposes through a voluntary agency 
which they have established — the organized labor move- 
ment. This agency is not only the representative of those 
who directly constitute it, but it is the representative of 
all those persons who have common problems and purposes 
but who have not yet organized for their achievement. 

Whether in peace or in war the organized labor move- 
ment seeks to make all else subordinate to human welfare 
and human opportunity. The labor movement stands as 
the defender of this principle and undertakes to protect the 
wealth-producers against the exorbitant greed of special in- 
terests, against profiteering, against exploitation, against 
the detestable methods of irresponsible greed, against the 

[291] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

inhumanity and crime of heartless corporations and em- 
ployers. 

Labor demands the right in war times to be the recog- 
nized defender of wage-earners against the same forces 
which in former wars have made national necessity an 
excuse for more ruthless methods. 

As the representatives of the wage-earners we assert that 
conditions of work and pay in government employment and 
in all occupations should conform to principles of human 
welfare and justice. 

A nation can not make an effective defense against an 
outside danger if groups of citizens are asked to take part 
in a war though smarting with a sense of keen injustice 
inflicted by the government they are expected to and will 
defend. 

The corner-stone of national defense is justice in funda- 
mental relations of life — economic justice. 

The one agency which accomplishes this for the workers 
is the organized labor movement. The greatest step that 
can be made for national defense is not to bind and 
throttle the organized labor movement but to afford it 
greatest scope and opportunity for voluntary effective co- 
operation in spirit and in action. 

During the long period in which it has been establishing 
itself, the labor movement has become a dynamic force 
in organizing the human side of industry and commerce. 
It is a great social factor, which must be recognized in 
all plans which affect wage-earners. 

Whether planning for peace or war the government must 
recognize the organized labor movement as the agency 
through which it must cooperate with wage-earners. 

Industrial justice is the right of those living within our 
country. With this right there is associated obligation. 
In war time obligation takes the form of service in defense 
of the Republic against enemies. 

We recognize that this service may be either military 
or industrial, both equally essential for national defense. 
We hold this to be incontrovertible that the government 
which demands that men and women give their labor power, 
their bodies or their lives to its service should also demand 
the service, in the interest of these human beings, of all 
wealth and the products of human toil — property. 

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LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

We hold that if workers may be asked in time of national 
peril or emergency to give more exhausting service than 
the principles of human welfare warrant, that service should 
be asked only when accompanied by increased guarantees 
and safeguards, and when the profits which the employer 
shall secure from the industry in which they are engaged 
have been limited to fixed percentages. 

We declare that such determination of profits should be 
based on costs of processes actually needed for product. 

Workers have no delusions regarding the policy which 
property owners and exploiting employers pursue in peace 
or in war and they also recognize, that wrapped up with 
the safety of this Republic are ideals of democracy, a 
heritage which the masses of the people received from our 
forefathers, who fought that liberty might live in this 
country — a heritage that is to be maintained and handed 
down to each generation with undiminished power and use- 
fulness. 

The labor movement recognizes the value of freedom and 
it knows that freedom and rights can be maintained only 
by those willing to assert their claims and to defend their 
rights. The American labor movement has always opposed 
unnecessary conflicts and all wars for aggrandizement, ex- 
ploitation and enslavement, and yet it has done its part 
in the world's revolutions, in the struggles to establish 
greater freedom, democratic institutions and ideals of human 
justice. 

Our labor movement distrusts and protests against militar- 
ism, because it knows that militarism represents privilege 
and is the tool of special interests, exploiters and despots. 
But while it opposes militarism, it holds that it is the duty 
of a nation to defend itself against injustice and invasion. 

The menace of militarism arises through isolating the 
defensive functions of the state from civic activities and 
from creating military agencies out of touch with masses 
of the people. Isolation is subversive to democracy — it 
harbors and nurtures the germs of arbitrary power. 

The labor movement demands that a clear differentiation 
be made between military service for the nation and police 
duty, and that military service should be carefully dis- 
tinguished from service in industrial disputes. 

We hold that industrial service shall be deemed equally 
[293] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

meritorious as military service. Organization for industrial 
and commercial service is upon a different basis from 
military service — the civic ideals still dominate. This should 
be recognized in mobilizing for this purpose. The same 
voluntary institutions that organized industrial, commercial 
and transportation workers in times of peace will best take 
care of the same problems in time of war. 

It is fundamental, therefore, that the government co- 
operate with the American organized labor movement for 
this purpose. Service in government factories and private 
establishments, in transportation agencies, all should con- 
form to trade union standards. 

The guarantees of human conservation should be rec- 
ognized in war as well as in peace. Wherever changes in 
the organization of industry are necessary upon a war 
basis, they should be made in accord with plans agreed upon 
by representatives of the government and those engaged 
and employed in the industry. We recognize that in war, in 
certain employments requiring high skill, it is necessary to 
retain in industrial service the workers specially fitted 
therefor. In any eventuality when women may be employed, 
we insist that equal pay for equal work shall prevail without 
regard to sex. 

Finally, in order to safeguard all the interests of the 
wage-earners organized labor should have representation 
on all agencies determining and administering policies of 
national defense. It is particularly important that organized 
labor should have representatives on all boards authorized 
to control publicity during war times. The workers have 
suffered much injustice in war times by limitations upon 
their right to speak freely and to secure publicity for their 
just grievances. 

Organized labor has earned the right to make these de- 
mands. It is the agency that, in all countries, stands for 
human rights and is the defender of the welfare and in- 
terests of the masses of the people. It is an agency that has 
international recognition which is not seeking to rob, ex- 
ploit or corrupt foreign governments but instead seeks to 
maintain human rights and interests the world over, nor 
does it have to dispel suspicion nor prove its motives either 
at home or abroad. 

The present war discloses the struggle between the insti- 
[294] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

tutions of democracy and those of autocracy. As a nation 
we should profit from the experiences of other nations. 
Democracy can not be established by patches upon an auto- 
cratic system. The foundations of civilized intercourse be- 
tween individuals must be organized upon principles of 
democracy and scientific principles of human welfare. Then 
a national structure can be perfected in harmony with 
humanitarian idealism — a structure that will stand the tests 
of the necessities of peace or war. 

We, the officers of the National and International Trade 
Unions of America in national conference assembled in the 
capital of our nation, hereby pledge ourselves in peace or 
in war, in stress or in storm, to stand unreservedly by the 
standards of liberty and the safety and preservation of the 
institutions and ideals of our Republic. 

In this solemn hour of our nation's life, it is our earnest 
hope that our Republic may be safeguarded in its unswerving 
desire for peace; that our people may be spared the horrors 
and the burdens of war ; that they may have the opportunity 
to cultivate and develop the arts of peace, human brother- 
hood and a higher civilization. 

But, despite all our endeavors and hopes, should our 
country be drawn into the maelstrom of the European con- 
flict, we, with these ideals of liberty and justice herein 
declared, as the indispensable basis for national policies, 
offer our services to our country in every field of activity 
to defend, safeguard and preserve the Republic of the 
United States of America against its enemies whomsoever 
they may be, and we call upon our fellow workers and 
fellow citizens in the holy name of Labor, Justice, Free- 
dom and Humanity to devotedly and patriotically give like 
service. 



[295] 



INTERNATIONAL WAR AND PEACE 

From the report of the Executive Council to the American 
Federation of Labor convention held in Philadelphia, Pa., 
November, ipi4. 

A stupendous conflict is shaking to its foundations the 
structure of world civilization. The normal relations of 
commerce and interchange have been disrupted. In Europe 
values placed upon the interests and purposes of human 
activity have been reversed. 

Before the war, the thought and effort of civilization 
were centered upon the development and the glorification of 
human life. One life was counted of infinite value. The 
end of progress, development, and work was that each in- 
dividual might have life more abundantly. Indefatigable 
minds have forced understanding of the unknown that hu- 
man life might be protected and conserved^ and that all the 
forces and resources of the universe might be put under 
the control of the will of man. Hearts that Were great with 
love and understanding of the yearnings and aspirations 
that lie in every life sought to bring beauty and joy into 
the common life of all. Over all the world was felt the 
stir of that great ideal — the fellowship of men. 

But since the cataclysm that brought war between na- 
tions, all the skill, the inventions, the knowledge of civiliza- 
tion have been perverted to purposes of destruction of 
human life and devastation of the products of human labor. 
Men are treated as only military pawns to obey implicitly 
the command of the general. They are targets for the most 
perfect guns and destructive ammunition human minds have 
invented. Things are valued for their life-destroying power. 
Guns are worth more than men. The value of military posi- 
tion is estimated in terms of human lives. The life and 
the property of the individual are ruthlessly sacrificed to 
ends of war. 

[296] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

The cruelty and butchery of the war are appalling. The 
waste and the suffering in its wake are heart-rending. The 
blackened homes, the ruined lives, the long procession of 
homeless, seeking food and shelter from the hands of stran- 
gers — all these are the products of war. There are na- 
tions that are sending the flower of their manhood to meet 
almost certain death. The strong, the healthy, the fit leave 
the work of the nation to the old and the very young, to 
women and to children. For centuries the nations will 
suffer from this mad stupid waste — for the fathers of the 
next generations will be the unfit physically and mentally, 
those whose vision or hearing is imperfect, those of under- 
size and subnormal development. 

Yet this war with its terrific toll of human lives is the 
product of artificial conditions and policies and is repugnant 
to the thought and political progress of the age. The big 
things of life and civilization are international. But so far 
we have made little effort or progress in providing agencies 
for organizing international relations to maintain peace and 
justice. We realize intellectually that peace and justice! 
should obtain among nations, but we have not yet instituted 
permanent means adequate to make that conviction a reality. 

A time when we are confronted by the effects and the 
appalling realities of a most terrible war is a peculiarly 
appropriate opportunity for the people to think out methods 
and agencies for the maintenance of peace. The terrible 
consequences of war which are forced upon us everywhere 
envelop peace plans with an unusual atmosphere of prac- 
ticability and urgency. The appeal for peace is getting very 
close to the American people, the only great nation not 
directly involved in the war and consequently the nation 
that holds in its hands the power of mediation and use of its 
good offices. This opportunity constitutes a duty if we 
really believe in the fellowship of men and the sacredness of 
human life. 

For years peace societies and organizations have presented 
arguments for peace, have adopted peace resolutions, and 
have declared for various international sentiments, but they 
have made little effort to give these visions reality in the 
organization of society and the relations among nations. But 
the war has shown that war can not be stopped by paper 
resolutions and that war can not put an end to itself. Wars 

[297] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

will cease only when society is convinced that human life 
is really sacred and when society establishes agencies, inter- 
national as well as national, for protecting lives. 

We profess to believe that all men have inalienable rights 
to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but we do not 
see to it that these rights are secured to each individual. 
Industry is conducted upon the supposition that human life 
is cheap. Profits are held to be the ultimate end of busi- 
ness. Therefore business managers must get profits and 
in furthering the getting sacrifice the workers in the proc- 
ess. Employers cold-bloodedly calculate in money terms 
the relative expensiveness of machinery and workers; of 
the eight-hour day and the twelve-hour day; of child labor 
and adult labor; of compensation for loss of life and limb 
and preventive measures. In coal mines, steel works and 
in transportation, human life is risked and sacrificed with 
cynical disregard. We profess to believe in democratic 
freedom yet domination of power so ruthlessly prevails in 
industry. 

Consider the statistics of industrial accidents, injuries and 
deaths. In harmony with this waste of human life in in- 
dustry is waste of human life in a crude effort to decide 
political issues on the battlefield. 

When we realize the wonderful possibilities in permitting 
each individual to develop his abilities and do his work with 
a sound mind and body, then shall we appreciate the sanctity 
of living and we shall not dare to hamper development in 
any way. When this ideal becomes a part of our daily 
thinking and doing and working then fellow-beings will not 
be robbed of that which no one has the power to restore — 
life. The establishment of this ideal of the sacredness of 
life is a problem of education. It must be drilled into peo- 
ple, made a part of their very being, and must saturate 
every mental fiber. 

It is not only that we are shocked at the waste of human 
life, but that we have not yet adjusted ourselves to this 
particular kind of waste — waste in war. We must realize 
the awful responsibility for the loss of human life so 
that with clearness and with understanding of the mean- 
ing of that waste nothing will prevent our putting an 
end to all preventable waste. When conviction is sufficiently 
compelling practical results will follow. Education and 

[298] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

agitation are necessary to create that conviction. Those 
who wish to abolish war must lose no opportunity to implant 
the ethics of humanity, to make the sacredness of human 
life a part of the thought and action of the nations. The 
power to declare war must be put in the hands of the 
people or their chosen representatives. 

In addition to establishing a sentiment and a conviction 
for peace there must be agencies established for the main- 
tenance of peaceful relations among nations and for dealing 
with international issues. Militarism and competitive arm- 
ament must be abolished and tribunals for awarding justice 
and agencies for enforcing determinations must be instituted. 
International interests and issues exist. Political institu- 
tions should be established, corresponding to political devel- 
opments. 

Those most interested should lead in the demands for 
world federation and the rule of reason between nations. 
The working people of all lands bear the brunt of war. 
They do the fighting, pay the war taxes, suffer most from 
the disorganization of industry and commerce which results 
from war. 

In accord with the action of the Seattle Convention upon 
the resolution endorsing the Naval Holiday plan proposed by 
the First Lord of Admiralty of Great Britain, that the 
nations cease from making additions to their navies for 
the period of one year, and that the plan be urged upon 
all the labor movements and governments of the civilized 
world, the President of the American Federation of Labor 
wrote to President Legien of the International Federation 
of Trade Unions advising him of this action and requesting 
that it be conveyed to the various affiliated national centers, 
for presentation to their respective governments. 

President Legien replied that under the laws of Germany 
as a representative of a trade union he would not be allowed 
to forward such a document to the officers of the national 
trade union centers of the different countries. He stated 
that in Germany the difference between political and eco- 
nomic organizations was carefully distinguished, and that 
discussion of the A. F. of L. resolution would entail conse- 
quences limiting their activities. President Legien also 
stated that it would be inexpedient to circulate the manifesto 
through the medium of the International Federation. How- 

[299] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

ever, the international office was helpful in having the 
manifesto translated into several different languages and 
forwarded to A. F. of L. headquarters. The translations 
were sent out from the A. F. of L. headquarters with the 
exhortation that the National Centers take action similar to 
the declaration of the Seattle Convention. 

Replies to the communication were received from France, 
Denmark, Great Britain, Austria, Sweden, Holland, South 
Africa, and Switzerland. The Federation of South Africa 
did not endorse the resolution. 

The national labor movements can promote the cause of 
international peace by two complementary lines of action: 
by creating and stimulating with their own nations a public 
sentiment that will not tolerate waste of life, and by estab- 
lishing international relations, understanding and agencies 
that will constitute an insuperable barrier to policies of 
force and destruction. With humanization, education, cul- 
tivation, the establishment of the rule of reason, occasions 
for wars and wars themselves will cease. The working 
people, the masses of the world's population, can end wars 
if they but have the independence to think and to give their 
convictions reality by daring to do. 

This convention should, aye, must, adopt some constructive 
suggestion and take some tangible action upon this world 
problem which so intimately affects the workers of all 
countries. 



From the report of the Committee on International Rela- 
tions to the American Federation of Labor convention held 
in Philadelphia, Pa., November, 1014. 

Upon that portion of the report of the Executive Council 
under the above caption, pages 48 and 49, the committee 
reported as follows: 

Your committee is in full accord with the presentation of 
fundamental principles, the sentiment of which appeals to 
the higher instincts and ennobling human attributes of man- 
kind and clearly represents labor's declaration that inde- 
pendence, liberty and justice for all mankind are paramount 
under all circumstances. 

[300] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

Your committee holds and desires to give expression to 
the following summaries as our interpretation of the states- 
manlike expression of labor's attitude upon this important 
question: Back of all wars of conquest is the spirit of 
brutality, greed and commercialism. Back of all revolu- 
tionary wars for redress of wrongs is the spirit of inde- 
pendence, liberty, justice and democracy. We declare 
against the former under all circumstances. In the second 
instance we emphasize the vast difference between the two 
kinds of wars and affirm that in the case of oppression, if 
the people have constitutional means of redress of wrongs 
and for obtaining liberty, justice and a fuller democracy, 
such means should be exhausted before resort to arms is 
justifiable. Where there are no constitutional means of 
redress available for the people and their destinies are 
governed and controlled by despotic or hereditary rulers 
who subordinate the interest and welfare of the toiling 
masses to the further enrichment of those in control of 
agencies of power, if the people resort to arms as the last 
means to obtain the inalienable right to life, liberty and 
the pursuit of happiness, justice and freedom, we have no 
words of condemnation. 



[301] 



INTERNATIONAL PEACE AND WAR 

From the report of the Executive Council to the American 
Federation of Labor convention held in San Francisco, Col., 
November, 1915. 

When the Executive Council made its report to the 
Philadelphia Convention, the European war had been in 
progress for several months. The horrors, the destruction 
and the waste of war were all so new that they were like 
a terrible weight on the spirits of all. The waste of human 
life, the brutality and the butchery, seemed so horrible as 
to be well-nigh impossible. 

But the months that have passed have revealed the tenacity 
of purpose involved in the war, the grim determination to 
fight the struggle to some definite decision, yet every day and 
every month of the war have demanded their toll of human 
blood and human life and the suffering of those left at 
home. 

The purpose and the method of war are a direct reversal 
of the purpose and the ideals of peace. Human beings are 
merely the agencies for carrying on war— they are the 
centers about which activities for peace revolve and for 
whom all of civilization and all of progress exist. With 
the beginning of hostilities, civilized life has been completely 
revolutionized and the affairs of life have been put upon 
a war basis. Those things which do not help in the de- 
struction of the enemy or for their own protection and de- 
fense are, for the time being, neglected by the warring na- 
tions. All of science, literature, music, and art that do not 
have some direct bearing upon the war or conduct of war 
seem to have disappeared completely from the thoughts of 
those who are intent upon destroying the armies of the enemy. 
Out of all this grim and deadly hostility there have grown 
an intensity of feeling, racial prejudice and bitterness that 
make all efforts at peace impractical and futile for the 
present. America has maintained a policy of isolation from 

[302] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

entangling alliances and has kept free from "the diplomatic 
jugglery that has involved so many European countries in 
wars. Our situation and physiography have aided this pur- 
pose. It has been our most earnest desire since the begin- 
ning of this European war to maintain our country free 
from any dispute that would involve us with any of the 
warring nations and so enable us to maintain an impartial 
attitude that would deserve the respect and the trust of 
each and every nation. Through such a policy we hope to 
be in a position to use our national power and influence 
to take advantage of any opportunity to secure peace and 
to establish conditions of equity and justice between na- 
tions. 

However, the economic ties that bind together the nations 
of modern civilization are so strong, so numerous and so 
interwoven, that the life and the affairs of any one country 
necessarily affect all other countries, and it is impossible 
for any nation to maintain isolation. The countries of the 
world have intimate international relations. Finances have 
international centers. There are common storehouses and 
common factories in all the nations. These ties can not be 
severed wholly or partially without bringing well-nigh in- 
credible suffering upon the peoples of the countries con- 
cerned. The outbreak of the war interfered with many of 
the industries and occupations of Europe. These peoples 
became increasingly dependent upon the store and resources 
of the United States and other countries. As a result, our 
foreign commerce was completely changed in character. The 
products that we sent abroad had to be adjusted to meet 
new demands and new needs. This necessitated change and 
readjustment in the industries of the United States. We 
found that we were unable to obtain many things for which 
we had depended upon European countries. 

This period of readjustment in the winter of 1914 meant 
to the wage-earners of the United States unemployment for 
many and all of the evil consequences of unemployment. 
But with the readjustment there came to many industries 
great opportunities for the sale of their products abroad, 
opportunities to produce the things that were necessary to 
supply the needs of the warring nations. As our country 
had maintained a policy of political neutrality, it was neces- 
sary also to maintain a policy of commercial neutrality and 

[303] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

the products of our factories and our fields were open to 
purchase by the buyers of any nation. The fortunes of 
war made commercial intercourse with our country easier 
for some nations than for others. The nature, the extent 
and the direction of our commerce have almost completely 
changed during the months that the war has been in prog- 
ress. 

It was necessary for the protection of American citizens 
to continue our foreign commerce. There has developed 
in this country and in some other countries a conscience 
that is extremely sensitive to the effects of our foreign 
commerce. According to this concept, commerce that sup- 
plies nations with certain products becomes, in some degree 
at least, responsible for the war itself and for the loss of 
life. Those who have this conviction feel that an embargo 
should be put upon such products, and that all trade should 
be forbidden in these things which enable Europe to con- 
tinue the struggle. 

But these persons do not consider fully the disastrous 
effect upon the workers of our country as well as upon all 
of the citizens that would come from such a restriction and 
discrimination of trade which would result in closing so 
many industries and would quickly reduce thousands of 
men, women and children of our country to starvation. 
There is no middle ground, for it is impossible to distinguish 
between munitions of war and the ordinary articles of 
commerce. Cotton, automobile trucks, horses, mules, are 
normal and necessary agencies for the cultivation of peace — 
they are also necessary agencies in carrying on war. Should 
we make any attempt to differentiate we would be involved 
in an interminable dispute over the possible purpose to which 
materials can be put. All nations are now turning to Amer- 
ica as the great producer of food, clothing, and the necessities 
of existence. 

Although it is recognized that these supplies from America 
do in a sense enable the foreign countries to carry on the 
war, yet it is also recognized that we have no right as a 
nation to interfere with the right of any other nation to 
determine in what manner it shall uphold its demands for 
justice. So long as nations are free and independent, so 
long as they shall maintain national self-respect, they must 
have the right to determine as they deem best the things 

f304] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

which affect them directly and intimately. As Americans 
we believe fully in freedom. If nations are to remain free 
they can not be forced or coerced by other nations, even in 
the matter of peace. 

There are evils and horrors which result from war, but 
there are also evils and horrors that result from a despotism 
that denies people and nations freedom to work out their 
own best welfare according to their own highest ideals. We 
respect neither an individual nor a nation who forgets his 
or its rights merely for the sake of maintaining peace. 
Individuals or nations who consciously permit a right to be 
denied establish a precedent of injustice that affects all 
others. We do not condemn individuals or nations that 
have fought nobly for ideals and for rights. On the con- 
trary, we glory in their courage and in their convictions 
and in the noble fight they have made. Had our forefathers 
preferred peace to justice, we would not now have the ideals 
and the institutions of freedom that exist. So now in our 
attitude toward European nations and the European war we 
must have in mind justice for America's citizens as well as 
our desire to restore peace. 

Peace can not be restored until the Europeon nations are 
willing. There have been in the last year sentiments and 
movements for peace that have been powerful to the ulti- 
mate realization of that purpose. Some of these movements 
have been genuine, others have been created by individuals 
and interests that were really unneutral. These movements 
have taken various forms; some have tried to influence the 
policies of the state and governmental authorities of our 
country; others have tried to work upon public opinion and 
still others have sought to use the good name of our labor 
movement to further the interests of some foreign country. 
But all of these efforts have thus far been futile. The 
citizens of our country, including all of the workingmen, 
are too genuinely patriotic, liberty-loving and humane to 
permit themselves to be used by any such agency. The 
efforts to use the workingmen of our country have been of 
two kinds : one to get through them the endorsement of the 
foreign policy to place an embargo upon so-called "munitions 
of war" ; the other has been to stir up industrial contentions 
and disputes and thus interfere with the actual process of 
production so that products to be sent abroad may be stopped. 

[305] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

Foreign agencies have been trying to reach corruptly some 
of the organizations of the workers, but they have not suc- 
ceeded. There is nothing touching the industrial and com- 
mercial life of America that is not of interest to the warring 
nations. They have sought all angles of control but every- 
where they have found a spirit of faithfulness in America, 
a spirit of unity and solidarity among the workers that 
impelled them indignantly and decisively to reject such offers 
after their real nature was made clear. 

Labor's Proposed Peace Congress 

The Philadelphia Convention adopted a resolution favor- 
ing the holding of a labor conference at the same time and 
place that a general congress should be held at the close of 
the present European war in order to determine conditions 
and terms of peace. The resolution instructed the E. C. to 
hold itself in readiness to call to such a meeting representa- 
tives of the organized labor movements of the various 
nations. It was thought that such a conference would have 
great weight in urging and presenting the welfare of hu- 
manity and in determining the nature of the decisions of 
the world congress. 

This proposal was submitted to the various organized labor 
movements of other countries and they were asked to com- 
municate their opinions in regard to the plan. So far we 
have had replies expressing approval from the French na- 
tional movement, from the secretary of the Trades Hall 
Council of Melbourne and from the South African Indus- 
trial Federation; from Germany came an opinion that such 
a plan was impracticable. Of course it is impossible to know 
whether the communication containing the section of the 
E. C. report upon international war and peace and the resolu- 
tion adopted by the Philadelphia Convention ever reached 
many of the labor headquarters. Attention is here called to 
the correspondence published in the current issue of the 
American Federationist, and upon which we amplify under 
the caption, "International Federation of Trade Unions." 
That correspondence must also be considered in connection 
with the subject now under consideration. 

Previous peace congresses of this nature have been 
more concerned with political schemes and the aggrandize- 
ment of individual nations, the maintenance of spheres of 

[306] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

influences, than they have been with human welfare, dem- 
ocracy and the rights of the people. The organized labor 
movement of the world represents the cause of humanity. 
There is no agency more capable or more fit to present and 
urge the claims of the people than the organized labor move- 
ments of the various countries. Ordinarily representatives 
in these great political congresses are not chosen by the 
people or as representative of the interest of the people, but 
they are chosen from among statesmen, politicians and those 
who represent great material interests. There is no assur- 
ance that the members of this next congress that must be 
held will be chosen in any different manner. Therefore, the 
holding of a Labor congress becomes necessary in order to 
infuse the spirit of humanity and democracy into this politi- 
cal conference. 

The congress will afford a tremendous opportunity, for 
many nations are involved in the war, practically all of the 
eastern hemisphere. There may be presented an opportunity 
tending to democratize the countries and the institutions of 
Europe politically, and to determine the spirit and the kind 
of relations that are to prevail between the peoples thereof 
in the future. This is an opportunity for which America 
is peculiarly fitted. Our country stands as the land of free- 
dom, the land of democracy. Our ideals have been an in- 
spiration to* the people of all lands and have induced many 
to make the struggle for freedom. Freedom is our ideal 
because we value human life, because we have the conception 
of the possibilities into which men and women may grow. 
The people of all countries have turned to our shores for 
inspiration and for hope. Millions have sought refuge here; 
others sought opportunity. This congress may enable our 
country to make our ideals the ideals of the whole world. 
To be sure, we have not been able to realize our ideals fully, 
but the great value of America has been that she has given 
the world a tremendous inspiration. It may be in this con- 
gress we can come nearer to making that ideal a reality in 
the lives of the people of the whole world. It is because of 
this great opportunity we have been especially desirous that 
America and her citizens shall avoid any relations that may 
in the future interfere with our effectiveness in acting as a 
disinterested mediator and conciliator. 

The war is so tremendous, the struggle so intense, the 
[307] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

chances so uncertain, that it is impossible to tell at what time 
peace may come and peace proceedings be inaugurated. For 
that reason it was felt that the E. C. ought to agree upon 
some tentative plan for the rapid assemblage of a labor 
conference. This is particularly necessary inasmuch as the 
organized labor movements of the fighting countries are 
necessarily somewhat demoralized through the war; their 
finances are depleted and they have not the means nor 
the facilities to obtain immediate and authentic information 
in regard to the political movements of the various countries. 
For these reasons, it is necessary that some general agreed 
upon plan shall be made public in these various countries. 
Of course, there will be bitterness engendered from the 
experiences and the results of the war, but the workers 
everywhere will have to lay aside their personal prejudices 
and even emotions that are closely related with their ideals, 
in order to cooperate for the mutual welfare and common 
betterment of humanity. As members of a great world 
society all of the interests of our lives are very closely en- 
twined, and we can not, even if we desire, maintain our 
interests isolated. Either we must be united for our com- 
mon advancement and our common protection or we will 
be defenseless against the plans and manipulations of the 
agents and representatives of the great interests, for it may 
be depended upon that these interests will cooperate for 
their own aggrandizement; that they will not allow indi- 
vidual feelings to interfere with their ultimate purposes. 

Purposes of Labor's Peace Congress 

A conference such as we proposed must be approached by 
representatives of Labor of the world with full conscious- 
ness of common interest and all methods necessary to attain 
those interests. There must be so keen an appreciation of 
the great things and the important things that the ephemeral 
and the personal may not interfere with the cooperation 
necessary to establish greater ideals. 

The nations engaged in the war have the right to de- 
termine their own policies, and the American labor move- 
ment does not propose any interference with this right of 
each nation. The war was caused by conditions and in- 
fluences for which we are not responsible and the beginning 
of which it is not now our mission to discuss. Any effort 

[308] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

on the part of our country to intervene now would be inter- 
preted as partisan and hence a violation of neutrality. Only 
by holding aloof from all movements, however well inten- 
tioned, until the right time to influence our government to 
interfere, can the labor movement be in a position to be 
most helpful in the constructive work of preparing regula- 
tions for international adjustments. The matters with which 
we are mainly concerned and which it is our duty to help 
determine, are those things which have to do with reorgan- 
ization at the close of the war and the establishment of 
agencies to maintain international justice and therefore 
permanent peace between nations. 

During the previous history of the world, international 
relations have been left as the field for professional diplo- 
mats and politicians. As a result this field has not been 
organized and there are few permanent agencies for dealing 
justly, comprehensively and humanely with international 
questions and rights. There exists, however, what may con- 
stitute a nucleus for developing permanent institutions. This 
nucleus consists of The Hague Tribunal and that indefinite 
mass of international customs known as international law. 

Suggestions have been made to these embryonic institu- 
tions to further develop into a more comprehensive pro- 
vision for influencing international relations. 

However, there has been no effort to democratize these 
institutions and to make them directly responsible to the 
peoples of the various nations concerned. 

The demand for democratic control and democratic 
organization of international agencies and international 
methods must come from the people, for it is hardly prob- 
able that diplomats and statesmen will voluntarily propose 
to share their power and authority with the masses of the 
people; and yet it is the masses of the people who suffer 
most grievously from wars and who must bear the brunt 
of war both during the time of fighting and in the period 
of readjustment that follows cessation of warfare. 

Not only has there been little or no effort to democratize 
international relations, but very little consideration has been 
given to democratizing the foreign policies of countries. 
The latter problem must be worked out by each nation, but 
would follow naturally from the establishment of the rule 
of the people in international affairs. The matters that will 

[309] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

be considered by any general Peace Congress called at the 
end of the present European war will be of vast importance 
in determining future policies and the directions of develop- 
ment for decades, aye, perhaps for all time. 

At all previous congresses of this type the matters con- 
sidered have been purely political and have been determined 
from the viewpoint of professional diplomacy which is con- 
cerned with statescraft rather than with the larger problems 
of national statesmanship and the general welfare of the 
masses of the people. Since the welfare of the wage-earners 
of all nations is largely affected by international regulations, 
in all justice it should be given primary consideration in 
the deliberations of a World Peace Congress. 

Just as the wage-workers of each country have by in- 
sistent demands forced their political agents to consider 
matters affecting their welfare, and have forced national 
recognition of the principle that the well-being of the people 
that constitute the nation is a matter of fundamental im- 
portance to the nation, so the wage-workers of the various 
nations must insist that there shall be established as an 
international principle that the welfare of human beings 
is of the greatest importance in international relations and 
intercourse. In whatever provisions are made for inter- 
national political agencies, the labor movements must 
present the demands of the people that these agents must be 
responsible to them. 

No doubt propositions concerned with international indus- 
trial and commercial undertakings will be considered by 
the Peace Congress. It will devolve upon the representa- 
tives of the wage-earners to present and to demand recog- 
nition for the human element concerned in such agreements. 
It has been altogether too common for such problems to 
be considered only from the purely commercial and private 
profit standpoint. Consideration of the human side will 
result only from the self-interest and the altruism of the 
wage-earners themselves. Any effective effort along this 
line will necessitate a more thorough international organiza- 
tion of the labor movements of the various countries. Ex- 
perience has demonstrated that the success of the labor 
movement of each country has been directly proportionate 
to its success in economic organization, so success in main- 
taining the interests of the wage-earners and international 

[310] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

relations will depend upon the kind and nature of our inter- 
national organization. 

It is impossible to plan in advance for all questions that 
may come up for consideration. The delegates must use 
discretion and judgment guided by the fundamental principle 
that human welfare must have the greatest consideration. 

Suggested Plans for the Congress 

There are various difficulties that arise in making a plan 
to convene the proposed conference. Not all the organized 
labor movements of the world belong to the International 
Federation of Trade Unions, and not all countries have 
national centers or federated labor movements, consequently 
any regulation for representation in such a congress must 
have considerable flexibility. 

This perhaps would be a workable plan: 

Let every national center affiliated to the International 
Federation of Trade Unions send not more than two dele- 
gates to the conference. 

The labor movement of any country, even though not 
affiliated, could send one delegate. 

If there is no one general movement in a country, let the 
representatives of the organizations of that country agree to 
send one delegate. It happens that many of the European 
countries consist of several nations, which have their 
separate national labor organizations. 

The wage-earners of many countries have not yet effected 
national organization. It would be extremely difficult to 
get in touch with the responsible officials of these labor 
movements as quickly as might be necessary in order for 
them to send representatives to the proposed labor confer- 
ence. It is necessary then to make provisions for the repre- 
sentation of such countries in some other than purely formal 
methods. 

It is suggested, in addition to the formal invitations sent 
to labor centers, that publicity be given to these invita- 
tions through the press, and that the notice of the time 
and place of holding the conference shall constitute in itself 
an invitation to participate in that conference through 
authorized representatives. In the meantime until then 
if there be time the E. C. of the American Federation of 

[311] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

Labor be authorized and empowered to extend formal invita- 
tions and issue the call in the name of the A. F. of L., and at 
the earliest possible moment after action has been taken by 
this convention. 

In view of the fact that peace when it comes will probably- 
come very quickly and there will be comparatively little time 
for making provisions for the labor conference and for cir- 
culating information in regard to that conference, it might 
be well to prepare in advance a circular to be sent to national 
centers, national labor movements, and to be circulated by 
the labor press of the world generally in order that a more 
complete representation may be obtained. Then it should 
also be understood that representatives to this congress must 
be either officials or duly accredited representatives of eco- 
nomic organizations of wage-earners. No representatives of 
political organizations, of philanthropic associations, or any 
other sort of an organization except a bona fide labor 
organization, shall be admitted as members of the con- 
ference. 

The delegates to this international conference before leav- 
ing their home countries should make provisions for publicity 
through the labor press of their countries for the delibera- 
tions and the decisions of the labor conference so that the 
wage-earners of the whole world would be in possession of 
the truth in regard to what transpires. 

In order that the position of the workers of the United 
States in regard to international peace and war may be 
fully representative and carry with it the weight of the 
unanimous voice of Labor of the country, we recommend 
that all International Trade Unions be urged to give their 
endorsement and pledge their cooperation to the program 
and plan outlined by this convention for the holding of a 
World's Labor Conference. 



[312] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 



From the, report of the Committee on International Rela- 
tions to the American Federation of Labor convention held 
in San Francisco, Col., November, 1915. 

On that portion of the Executive Council's report under 
the caption of International Peace and War, we are in full 
accord and take pleasure in so reporting. We have taken 
note of and fully indorse the statement that the "horrors, 
the destruction and the waste of war were all so new that 
they were like a terrible weight on the spirits of all. The 
waste of human life, the brutality and the butchery seemed 
so horrible as to be well nigh impossible"; and again with 
the further statement: "It is then our most earnest desire 
since the beginning of this European war to maintain our 
country free from any dispute that would involve us with 
any of the warring nations, and so enable us to maintain an 
impartial attitude that would deserve the respect and the 
trust of each and every nation"; and further and more par- 
ticularly with the following statement : "There is no middle 
ground, for it is impossible to distinguish between munitions 
of war and the ordinary articles of commerce. ... So long 
as nations are free and independent, so long as they shall 
maintain national self-respect, they must have the right to 
determine as they seem best the things which affect them 
directly and intimately. As Americans we believe fully in 
freedom. If nations are to remain free, they cannot be 
forced or coerced by other nations even in the matter of 
peace"; and finally: "Had our forefathers preferred peace 
to justice, we would not now have the ideals and the institu- 
tions of freedom that exist; so now in our attitude toward 
European nations and the European war we must have in 
mind justice for American citizens as well as our desire to 
restore peace." 

We are fully in accord and agree with the sentiments 
expressed. We hold America has the right to carry forward 
its normal or extraordinary activities, industrial, political or 
otherwise, so long as we do not violate any rule of humanity 
or fundamental rule of strict neutrality. We stand for 
justice and right rather than for peace at any price, we 
want peace, we shall work for peace, and hope finally to 
attain it. We agree with and commend the sayings, acts 

[313] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

and attitude of President Gompers which in their wise appli- 
cation have done much to safeguard and protect the honor 
and best interests of the American labor movement and all 
America. Fearlessly, freely and boldly expressed, his guid- 
ance has received the warmest endorsement of our nation 
and has been a potential factor in the national policy that 
has kept us out of the spineless class, yet free from en- 
tanglement in the cataclysm now devastating Europe. 

Labor's Peace Conference 

We are in full accord with the plan suggested by the 
Executive Council as outlined in its report, and fully concur 
in the suggested arrangements for holding such conference. 
While we reaffirm the action taken by the Philadelphia 
convention, we hold the Executive Council should again be 
instructed to make all arrangements for holding the antici- 
pated conference, and further that the Executive Council 
be and is hereby authorized to select the President of the 
American Federation of Labor and one other to represent 
the A. F. of L. in such conference. 

The A. F. of L., the American trade union center, because 
of its strict neutrality, isolation and distance from the 
seat of trouble, its freedom from race bitterness, hatred and 
passion, is eminently qualified to lead in the effort which 
portends so much and is so important for the future well- 
being of the trade union movement, human life, liberty, 
justice and a broader democracy for all mankind. 



[314] 



INTERNATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS 

From the report of the Executive Countil to the American 
Federation of Labor Convention held in Baltimore, Md., 
November, ipi6. 

In our report to the San Francisco Convention we sug- 
gested a practical plan for the holding of a World Labor 
Congress at the same time and place as the World Peace 
Congress shall be held at the close of the present European 
war. The plan was suggested in accord with the direction 
of the Philadelphia Convention, which had adopted the sug- 
gestion that such a labor congress ought to be held, and 
directed that a practical plan be suggested to the next con- 
vention. 

The plan which we recommended to the San Francisco 
Convention was adopted by that convention and we were in- 
structed to make all arrangements for holding the pro- 
posed conference. The convention authorized us to send 
as representatives of the American Federation of Labor 
to that Congress the president and one other representative 
of our Federation. 

In order to carry out the instructions of the convention, 
we had prepared a statement setting forth the purposes of 
the World Labor Congress and the tentative plan for the 
congress which had been endorsed by the San Francisco 
Convention. This statement was to be in the form of a 
circular letter addressed to the organized labor movements 
of all countries. It was printed in English and translated 
into French, German, and Spanish, and sent, in these various 
languages, to the organized labor movements of all countries 
for which we had secured the names and addresses of officers. 
Despite the strict censorship maintained in all belligerent 
countries, we have reason to believe that this letter was 
generally allowed to pass the censors. During the course 
of the year many letters of inquiry and approval were re- 
ceived from various countries, and in our own country the 

[315] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

proposed congress aroused general interest and met with 
enthusiastic approval. The influence which a representa- 
tive group of workers of the world could wield in such a 
congress was appreciated by all those who had an under- 
standing of the definite progress that the world has been 
making toward democracy and toward an understanding of 
human rights and human freedom. Somehow thinking peo- 
ple have been catching the meaning of democracy ; they have 
come to realize that it means that the people — all of the 
people — have a right to do things for themselves; that they 
need no longer to look up to others to do things for them, 
not even the things that pertain to government and inter- 
national relations. Every worker, because he is a human 
being, has a right to a place in the world ; a right to a voice 
in determining his life and the conditions under which he 
shall live, and a right to an opportunity to have his ideas 
and welfare considered before national issues are deter- 
mined. It was the old thought that workers knew nothing 
about problems and issues ; that they were to work for others 
and do nothing else; that the big things in life, that the 
fundamental principles determining affairs, should be decided 
by others — those of another class. As the workers have 
gained in economic power they have been able to justify 
their position, that they, the great masses of the people of 
America, had a right to determine all of their own affairs, 
and that the affairs governing organization of society were 
just as much theirs as they were the politicians' or the 
statesmen's or the employing or property holding classes'. 
Tradition has given power of determination to these classes; 
their purposes and policies were primarily influenced by their 
personal interests and the desire to maintain control for their 
own classes because that insured the present organization 
of society. The guiding concept of the wage-earners is 
the paramount importance of the human being. According 
to this understanding of life everything else — land, property, 
influence — must be subordinated to human welfare and made 
to serve the people. This concept will never be made the 
controlling concept of society except through the will and 
action of the workers themselves. 

It was this understanding and this purpose that lay back 
of the proposal made by the A. F. of L. to hold a World 
Labor Congress, by setting standards, presenting ideals and 

[316] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

bringing these matters before the World Peace Congress 
and the people of all of the nations in such a way that they 
could not be ignored. In this way the wage-earners would 
have a part in giving a high tone to the World Peace Con- 
gress and in setting standards below which they would not 
dare to fall. 

We regret to report that the proposal of the A. F. of L. 
to hold an International Labor Conference at the time and 
place when the representatives of the governments of the 
various countries shall meet for the purpose of determining 
conditions of peace and entering into a treaty was not ap- 
proved by the organized labor movement of Great Britain. 
This action, together with the statement of President Legien 
of the Federation of Trade Unions of Germany that such a 
movement would be of doubtful practicability, necessarily 
requires that our proposition be abandoned. 

When information of this official rejection of the plan 
adopted by the San Francisco Convention reached this coun- 
try, because of the tremendous importance of the plan and 
of the infinite and boundless influence that a representation 
of wage-earners could have upon the deliberations of the 
World Peace Congress, the following suggestion was con- 
sidered by us and adopted: 

Since the first proposal submitted by the A. F. of L. 
to the labor organizations of Europe has been definitely 
rejected by them, we suggest that the organized labor 
movements of those countries that shall participate in 
the general peace conference to determine terms and 
conditions of peace at the close of the war, shall urge 
upon their respective governments that the wage-earners 
shall be represented in an official commission from their 
respective countries. The same policy ought to be pur- 
sued also by organized labor movements of neutral 
countries if it shall be determined that neutral countries 
also will participate in the general peace congress. 

Thus representatives of wage-earners would be seated 
with other representatives of the nations in general 
conferences connected with the formulation of peace 
terms. In this way the ideals and needs of wage- 
earners would be presented and considered by the gen- 
eral official body. 

[317] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 



From the supplemental report of the Executive Council 
to the American Federation of Labor Convention held in 
Baltimore, Md., November, 1016: 

Baltimore, Nov. 16, 1916. 
To the Thirty-sixth Annual Convention of the American 

Federation of Labor. 
Greeting : 

Since our report was prepared and in printed form an 
important communication has been received that ought to 
be considered by this convention in connection with that 
subject. The following is a letter from Carl Legien, Presi- 
dent of the Federation of Trade Unions in Germany: 

International Federation of Trade Unions. 

Berlin, October 4, 1916. 
To the American Federation of Labor, Washington, D. C. 
Dear Comrades: 

Incidents which appear apt to break up the organization of 
the International Federation of Trade Unions render it 
expedient to summon an International Trade Union Con- 
ference during the time of war. 

The conference is to take place at Berne (Switzerland) 
on December II, 1916. The agenda will comprise decision 
regarding : 

1. The continuation of the International Federation of 
Trade Unions. 

2. The publication of the International News Letter. 

3. Miscellaneous proposals. 

According to the rules (resolutions of the conferences 
of Budapest, 191 1, and Zurich, 1913), each national center 
is not allowed to send more than two delegates to the inter- 
national conference. 

The necessity of the conference is apparent from the 
following : 

On July 5th of the current year a trade union conference 
sat at Leeds, England, at which the Confederation Generale 

£318] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

du Travail and the General Federation of Trade Unions 
were officially represented by their secretaries. Besides, 
there were present representatives from Belgium and two 
representatives of a trade union organization in Italy not 
affiliated to the Confederazione Generale del Lavoro, but 
recognized by the conference as representing the trade unions 
of Italy. 

The international trade union organization known as the 
International Federation of Trade Unions continues to exist 
even if, at present, it can only execute the tasks entrusted 
to it in a limited way. As long as the war ravages the 
European countries, exterminates the masses and interna- 
tionally separates labor, it is the office of the International 
Federation of Trade Unions to safeguard the unity without, 
so that it may resume more easily its former manner of 
activity and be developed to a greater degree. 

The Amsterdam branch office makes it possible for all 
national sections which — owing to the war — could not com- 
municate with the central office of the International Federa- 
tion of Trade Unions to maintain the connection without 
getting into conflict with the interests of their own country. 
Each national center ought to have refrained, therefore, 
from holding special conferences. Neither the national 
centers of the neutral countries nor those of the Central 
Powers has ever attempted or even suggested anything of 
the kind. Their exchange of correspondence with the Inter- 
national Federation of Trade Unions was exactly the same 
as that conducted with the Entente Powers via Amsterdam, 
although the desire for discussion existed here just as much 
as there. 

Not only did such discussions take place at the Leeds con- 
ference, but resolutions were passed the carrying out of 
which would be identical to the establishing of a new inter- 
national organization for the four countries named. A cor- 
respondence bureau is to be erected in Paris, which is to 
be headed by a council of delegates of the affiliated countries. 
The secretary of the Confederation Generale du Travail 
was, besides, commissioned with preparing a new conference 
of trade unions of the allied countries. 

Thus the organization of the International Federation of 
Trade Unions has been violated. The affiliated national or- 
ganizations must be given the opportunity of deciding in 

[319] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

regard to the continuation of the International Federation 
of Trade Unions and its further activity. This can only 
be done at a conference at which all national centers affili- 
ated to the International Federation of Trade Unions can 
be represented. For that reason Berne has, after consult- 
ing the Swiss trade unions, been decided on as the place 
of meeting and the date put off until the middle of December. 
The difficulties in the way of sending delegates to and 
holding an international trade union conference are obvious. 
The matter, however, cannot be settled in any other way, 
if the trade union is not to be paralyzed completely for 
years to come. Once before, in June, 1915, the majority 
of the national centers decided by letter that no change was 
to take place regarding the International Federation of 
Trade Unions until the conclusion of the war. It will not 
be possible now to consult the opinion of the national organi- 
zation by letter, because after the sitting of the Leeds con- 
ference the question at issue is not the removal of the 
headquarters of the International Federation of Trade 
Unions, but the continuation of the trade union international 
and the form it is going to take in the future. Under these 
circumstances the difficulties in the way of an international 
conference must be overcome and the unpleasantness con- 
nected with the representation question endured. We trust, 
therefore, that all national centers desirous of preventing the 
international separation of the trade unions will send repre- 
sentatives to the conference. With fraternal greetings, 

(Signed) C. Legien. 

President Gompers wrote to Mr. Legien acknowledging 
receipt of his communication and stating that it would be 
submitted to this convention. On November II, the follow- 
ing cablegram later was received: 

"Kjoebenhavn (Copenhagen). 
"Mr. Samuel Gompers, 

"American Federation of Labor, 

"Washington, D. C. 
"International Trade Union Conference at Berne, Switzer- 
land, nth of December, canceled until other information 
is given. Letter follows. Legien." 

[320] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

We ought to call the attention of the delegates to the 
action of the American Federation of Labor approving the 
proposal submitted by the Federation Generale du Travaile 
of France to move the international office to Switzerland. 
The American Federation of Labor then submitted that in 
the event of war between groups of countries the labor 
movements of which are affiliated with the International 
Federation of Trade Unions the headquarters should be 
automatically neutralized and the affairs of the international 
labor movement protected against the charge or the appear- 
ance of partisanship. 

The American labor movement has refused to consider 
or to suggest any other international proposition concerned 
with the labor matters during the war. The proposition 
considered by the Philadelphia and San Francisco conven- 
tions was to give the workers an opportunity to find means 
for presenting the immense human interests affected by in- 
ternational relations at the time when, after the war, steps 
were being taken for reconstruction and for giving direction, 
tone and purpose to future development. 

We have been appalled by the human suffering, the 
physical and mental agony and the loss and waste of human 
life in the European war and we earnestly desire to prevent 
the recurrence of such a horror. That purpose cannot be 
achieved unless constructive measures are devised to accom- 
plish it. 

The domain of international relations is yet in chaotic 
condition. There exists a vague mass of customs known as 
international law and the beginnings of international moral- 
ity. However, there has been little or no effort to organize 
this domain for peace and for constructive work. Public 
opinion has been educated far in advance of the develop- 
ment of agencies through which it must operate. 

The important thing is to take steps in the right direc- 
tion, when peace brings opportunity. This thought has been 
uppermost in the minds of humanitarian men, many of whom 
have banded together and formulated definite programs. 

In order that the wage-workers of America may be ready 
to participate in the field of international affairs, it is neces- 
sary for us to consider various tentative suggestions and 
to determine upon a definite program promoting labor's in- 
terests. 

[321] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

The various proposals for the organization of international 
relations disclose that the field and its problems are analogous 
to those of relations between individuals — a domain that 
is now systematically regulated by the governments of the 
various states. Some of the same principles will apply to 
the larger domain between nations. 

We submit that there ought to be a voluntary union of 
nations, a league for peace to adjust disputes and difficulties, 
and to take the initiative in constructive efforts to direct and 
facilitate world progress in accord with highest concepts. 

Among the suggestions usually made for maintaining 
peace is arbitration. Arbitration has been so generally dis- 
cussed that it is not necessary at this time for us to consider 
its purposes and functions. However, it has been generally 
conceded that arbitration has an exceedingly important field 
of service within definite limitations. Arbitration can be 
effective only in the adjustment of differences, and thus is 
limited to justiciable matters. We suggest, therefore, that 
it is not suited to adjust difficulties that are most likely 
to threaten peace between countries, and it cannot deal con- 
structively with elements and conditions in their making, 
which, when further developed, would inevitably result in 
friction, misunderstanding or the use of force. 

There is nothing novel or untried in the first proposition. 
Arbitration treaties exist between practically all civilized 
countries. Between some, as the United States and Canada, 
permanent courts have been established to adjudicate differ- 
ences. To apply this principle to world relations would 
necessitate a permanent agency, to which would be submitted 
all justiciable differences arising between signatory nations 
and not susceptible of other adjustment. Would not a 
permanent world judicial tribunal, composed of jurists and 
those familiar with international law, with jurisdiction over 
judicial questions concerning members of the league, be a 
fitting agency to perform this work? 

In international, judicial and justiciable matters there are 
a large number of problems susceptible to mediation and 
administrative action. For these we suggest a second agency 
adapted to deal with matters of an entirely different nature, 
such as economic issues and the affairs concerned in the 
daily life and work of the citizens of the nations. Such a 
commission should be composed of men in close touch with 

[322] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

industrial and commercial forces in action, not those who 
from a viewpoint remote from the political and industrial 
struggle look down upon the activity of the people and 
the creative forces hewing out the destiny of the nations. 
The real interests, needs and ideals of the people would 
be best represented by selecting for this commission journal- 
ists, publicists, scientists, professional men, men of affairs, 
wage-earners — those in close touch with the heart of the 
nations, through their work, whether as organizers of the 
processes of production and commerce or as the human 
agents necessary for the utilization of material resources. 

Fundamentally, would not the creation of this commission 
for hearing, considering and recommending as to the infinite 
variety of interests arising between nations make for the 
organization of the field forces of diplomacy? By democra- 
tizing the commission and appointing to it those representa- 
tives of the rank and file of nations and their varied interests, 
the light of publicity would be turned upon secret diplomacy 
and its agents would be rendered more responsive to the 
will of the people. 

Old style diplomacy here failed. The traditional diplomat 
regarded his service as an art detached from the crude 
struggle for an existence and was unmindful or ignorant of 
the human interests involved in machinations of diplomacy. 
Diplomacy must be made more open, more honest, more 
effective if our civilization is not to be brought into question 
and jeopardy. 

We suggest consideration of means to make the purpose 
of the League for Peace effective. Would not those nations 
that band themselves together in a league for peace need 
to agree upon means for securing compliance with regula- 
tions and for the use of force against a signatory nation 
which might go to war or engage in hostilities against 
another member of the league without having submitted its 
grievances in the proper way provided by the agreement? 
Joint use of both economic and military forces of signatory 
nations could be directed against the offending nation. 

In order to render international law more tangible and 
better adapted to the problems with which it must deal would 
it not be well to provide for conferences of nations to meet 
at definite times to formulate and codify international law? 

[323] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

The suggestions which we submit are to be considered 
as a general foundation for organization for peace between 
nations, and would help to avert unnecessary wars. We do 
not declare that it would abolish war — but by mediating 
the causes of war, war becomes less probable. 

We submit for consideration whether each separate nation 
ought not to maintain its separate agencies for compulsion, 
with the assurance to each of sovereignty and necessary 
authority to determine matters of a distinctively national 
character? Collective action by a league of nations ought 
not to dictate the limitation or the regulation of military 
and naval equipment, but it can properly prevent the use of 
such force for national aggrandizement and for exploita- 
tion of the small countries. We deplore militarism, but the 
fight against militarism must ultimately be made by the 
citizens of the different nations. Establishing methods and 
agencies which render display of military and naval power 
no longer effective is the practical and direct way to abolish 
rivalry between nations in standing armies and naval equip- 
ment. 

The way to prevent war is to organize for peace. The 
working people of all countries are vitally interested in the 
maintenance of world peace. We feel that in addition to 
expressing our desire we ought to consider constructive 
suggestions. 

We are keenly conscious that institutions and regulations 
alone are not sufficient. These are only the agencies. Back 
of them must be an international mind and conscience edu- 
cated to demand the democratization and humanization of 
our common affairs. The labor movements of all countries 
have contributed much to the will for peace and justice, 
and must do their part in the development of the agencies 
by which their will can be expressed. 

We suggest that the Executive Council be authorized 
to continue its efforts in behalf of an international labor 
conference after the war, with instructions to have the 
American Federation of Labor represented in that con- 
ference. No one can foretell what eventuality may occur 
in the war; perhaps it may end before our 1917 convention. 
Therefore, the Executive Council ought to be in a position 

[324] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

to take action to carry out labor's purpose and to protect 

its interests. 

Fraternally submitted, 

Samuel Gompers, 
James Duncan, 
James O'Connell, 
D. A. Hayes, 
Joseph F. Valentine, 
John R. Alpine, 
H. B. Perham, 
Frank Duffy, 
William Green, 
Frank Morrison, 
John B. Lennon, 
Executive Council American Federation of Labor. 



From the report of the Committee on International Rela- 
tions to the American Federation of Labor convention held 
in Baltimore, Md., November, igi6. 

Your committee desires to reiterate, that you may reaffirm, 
the expressions and declarations of the conventions of the 
American Federation of Labor on the questions of war and 
its causes as follows: 

Back of all wars of conquest is the spirit of brutality, greed 
and commercialism and back of all revolutionary wars for 
redress of wrongs is the spirit of independence, liberty, 
justice and democracy. We declare against the former 
under all circumstances and in the second instance we have 
no words of condemnation, and that your committee feels the 
American Federation of Labor through this convention can 
serve the best interests of all our fellow-workers regardless 
of where located and, moreover, those of our trade union 
movement by maintaining strict neutrality under existing 
circumstances. 

We again repeat and express that fraternal spirit and 
world-wide sympathy and kindly regard for the welfare of 
our fellow-workers regardless of where located or of na- 
tionality. 

While words cannot express the horror we feel over the 
[325] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

terrible conflict now devastating Europe and by which so 
many human souls are being dropped into the vortex of 
eternity, we express the judgment that unless a larger 
measure of human liberty, justice and democracy shall come 
to the toiling masses, the frightful sacrifice has been and 
will be in vain. 

Let us here express the hope that, while regretting the 
existence of the world war, since it has been inaugurated, 
its end will usher in an era which shall witness the estab- 
lishment of a better understanding of labor's viewpoint and 
better economic, social and political conditions for all the 
workers, and finally that from the ashes of destruction and 
the carnage of conflict there shall be merged a new spirit, 
a new courage and the determination upon the part of labor 
to obtain and hold a fuller democracy which shall safeguard, 
protect and advance the liberties and material interests of 
the masses. While civilization has wandered far from the 
ideals of humanity and a brutalizing madness is temporarily 
enthroned in this war, we are neither pessimists nor neces- 
sarily pacifists. We express the judgment that first the war 
cannot and will not crush the hopes and aspirations and 
activities of organized labor, and that secondly the trade 
union movement will be a potential force in establishing 
and maintaining more permanent peace upon a foundation 
which will maintain greater justice and human liberty and 
finally stand as a bulwark of strength against wars of 
conquest waged in the interest of commercialism, kings, 
potentates and an oligarchy of arrogant autocracy grounded 
upon finance and commercialism. 

{World Labor Congress.] 

We note with extreme regret the failure of certain 
European labor movements to accept the invitation and plan 
adopted by the San Francisco Convention of the American 
Federation of Labor, and submitted to all labor centers of 
all the countries to participate in a World Labor Congress 
at the same time and place as the World's Peace Congress 
shall be held at the close of the present European war. 

The present confusion and chaotic conditions of the 
world's trade union movement justify the wisdom of the 
proposition made and adopted at the San Francisco 1915 

[326] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

Convention of the American Federation of Labor, wherein 
we suggested that in times of stress, and when the normal 
functions and activities of the International Federation of 
Trade Unions should be interrupted for any cause, the 
office of the President should automatically revert to some 
neutral country. Had this been agreed to we would not 
now be facing the danger of a disruption of the International 
Federation of Trade Unions. 

We cannot, and we do not, condemn the action of any 
federated center. We realize that they are influenced by 
extremely abnormal conditions, and that they are controlled 
by national and racial passions engendered by this war that 
are now at white heat ; that their actions are not necessarily 
the sober second thought and judgment which might, and 
undoubtedly would, be expressed under normal living con- 
ditions. 

We are keenly mindful of the fact that it is extremely 
difficult for us to get information to the labor movements 
of certain countries, and more difficult for such movements 
to get the true information to us. All communications are 
held up and censored, hence judgment should be stayed, and 
conclusions reached only after we are in possession of the 
absolute facts. 

While we are forced to abandon the original proposition 
to hold a World Labor Congress at the time and place of 
the World's Peace Congress to be held at the close of 
the war, while reaffirming the judgment which prompted the 
adoption of such a proposition, yet in the event of the 
failure to hold a congress such as proposed we concur with 
the Executive Council that some action should be taken and 
the necessary machinery adopted to carry forward the pur- 
poses and intent of such a congress and recommend that 
the Executive Council be authorized to continue efforts to 
bring about a conference after the war in which the organ- 
ized labor movement of all countries affiliated to the Inter- 
national Federation of Trade Unions may participate, and 
that the Executive Council be instructed to have the Ameri- 
can Federation of Labor represented in that conference, as 
directed by the San Francisco Convention. 

From the results of the correspondence, as well as the 
conferences had between the representatives of the labor 
movement of the various European countries and some of 

[327] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

the officers of the American Federation of Labor, it is 
not now determined whether the national conference pro- 
posed by the American Federation of Labor can be held, 
and yet we do not believe that the American Federation 
of Labor should entirely abandon the proposal. In any 
event we recommend that further effort be made to clear 
away the misapprehensions or whatever there may be of 
groundless opposition to the conference; that at all events 
we urge that the labor movements of the various countries 
should insist upon representation by men of organized labor 
movement in the treaty-making congress in which the terms 
of peace and the future conduct of the nations shall be 
determined. 

We hold that the voice of labor should be heard in the 
official congress of the nations and in the conferences of 
organized labor and that the Executive Council is authorized 
to carry both or either of these propositions into effect. 



From the report of the Committee on International Re- 
lations on the supplementary report of the Executive Council 
to the American Federation of Labor convention held in 
Baltimore, Md., November, 1016. 

We concur in the opinion expressed by the Executive 
Council that it is necessary to organize for peace in order 
to prevent unnecessary wars, wars for commercial and po- 
litical exploitation or aggrandizement and unreservedly rec- 
ommend for your adoption the constructive plan for that 
purpose outlined in the supplementary report of the Execu- 
tive Council on International Relations. 

Experience and history do not warrant us in believing 
that any plan will wholly abolish war, nor do we think that 
any nation can ever wholly relinquish the right to wage 
war. The right to oppose wrong and injustice is essential 
to the maintenance of the spirit and the purposes of ideals 
and institutions of freedom. Yet, while preserving our 
right to oppose any infringement of our rights and to pro- 
tect our freedom, we hold that these can best be safe- 
guarded by establishing institutions for dealing with relations 
between nations and thereby organizing that field for peace. 

[328] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

We believe that through permanent institutions, mediation, 
conciliation and by directing forces and conditions as they 
develop, the causes of wars and wars themselves may be 
prevented. 

We appreciate the fact that peace is essential to the 
highest development of civilization and that it is earnestly 
desired by all right thinking people. But desire for peace 
is not in itself sufficient. There must be will for peace, 
together with agencies for making that will effective in the 
affairs of nations. There must be voluntary associated effort 
to establish justice so that there may be an honorable basis 
for permanent peace. 

It is a purpose so valuable that it is worthy of our best 
thought and most intelligent efforts. The organized labor 
movement must present constructive suggestions if their con- 
cepts are to be considered while international institutions 
are in the making. 

Therefore, we recommend for adoption the fundamentals 
contained in the report of the Executive Council as basis 
for an international organization for promoting justice be- 
tween nations to the end that wars may be averted and 
human and national rights and freedom maintained. 



[329] 



INTERNATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS 

From the Executive Council's report to Buffalo Con- 
vention, November, ipif: 

There has been practically no constructive development 
since the report to the Baltimore Convention on this sub- 
ject. As was reported to that convention, there was, at 
that time, under consideration a meeting of the Interna- 
tional Federation of Trade Unions to be held in Berne, 
Switzerland, some time in December, 1916. The authorized 
representatives of the various trade union centers did not in- 
dorse this proposal and the conference was not held. Later 
in the year an effort was made to revive this project for 
holding a conference at Berne, Switzerland, but that also 
was not successful. For the convenience of the delegates to 
this convention as well as for the assistance of committees 
dealing with this particular subject, the correspondence upon 
this matter, as well as upon all other matters affecting inter- 
national labor relations, is published in the November, 1917, 
American Federationist. 

The announcement of the overthrow of despotism in Rus- 
sia and the establishment of governmental control by the 
people is one of the encouraging results of the terrible 
European conflict. The change in Russia from despotism to 
opportunity for freedom created a situation that was ex- 
tremely critical. The advocates of freedom in Russia had 
had little practical experience and only opportunity for 
theorizing. The ardent advocates of human freedom were 
now made responsible for putting their theories and ideals 
into actual practice. 

Since the overthrow of Czardom came in the midst of the 
European war the Russian people found themselves con- 
fronted by two gigantic problems, either of which was 
enough to test the mettle and ability of any nation well dis- 
ciplined and well schooled in governmental activities. They 

[330] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

had to develop methods and agencies for carrying on the 
war against the central European powers and also to de- 
vise and establish immediate provisional governmental 
agencies and to develop permanent constitutional institutions. 
All who had the best interest of Russia at heart were keenly 
apprehensive lest the Russian people, in their eagerness 
to establish freedom and their natural desire that every 
vestige of despotism within the country should be abolished, 
might be more eager to achieve these purposes than was 
at the time compatible with practical constructive results. 

Nations with free institutions have found that the ideals 
of human freedom can not be established at once but that 
it is a matter of development following a constantly broaden- 
ing ideal. Governmental agencies can only afford oppor- 
tunity for freedom — people achieve freedom in their daily 
life. 

The people of the United States, one of the oldest repub- 
lics, felt keenly their responsibility to place at the disposal of 
the Russian people the experience that we have acquired 
since our declaration of freedom in 1776. No class of citi- 
zens rejoiced more deeply in the newly established freedom 
of Russia and felt more keenly their obligation to assist the 
Russian people than the workers of America. 

The enforced abdication of the Czar was followed by a 
provisional government, which made the following declara- 
tion of principles as the basis of an appeal for support: 

The new Cabinet will base its policy on the follow- 
ing principles: 

1. An immediate general amnesty for all political 
and religious offenses, including terrorist acts and mili- 
tary and agrarian offenses. 

2. Liberty of speech and of the press; freedom for 
alliances, unions and strikes, with the extension of these 
liberties to military officials, within the limits admitted 
by military requirements. 

3. Abolition of all social, religious and national re- 
strictions. 

4. To proceed forthwith to the preparation and con- 
vocation of a constitutional assembly, based on uni- 
versal suffrage, which will establish a governmental 
regime. 

[331] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

5. The substitution of the police by a national militia 
with chiefs to be elected and responsible to the govern- 
ment. 

6. Communal elections to be based on universal 
suffrage. 

7. The troops which participated in the revolu- 
tionary movement will not be disarmed but will remain 
in Petrograd. 

8. While maintaining strict military discipline for 
troops on active service, it is desirable to abrogate 
for soldiers all restrictions in the enjoyment of social 
rights accorded other citizens. 

The provisional government desires to add that it has 
no intention to profit by the circumstances of the war 
to delay the realization of the measures of reform above 
mentioned. 

The Russian revolution was, in a large degree, the re- 
sults of the aspirations and the efforts of Russia's workers. 
It was, therefore, particularly fitting that an expression of 
the feeling of America's workers should be conveyed to 
those in charge of the revolutionary movement in Russia. 
Therefore, we, in the interim of conventions, as the spokes- 
men of the American labor movement, sent cablegrams to 
the revolutionary leaders of Russia. 

In order to assist the Russian leaders to steady the diverse 
and fervid movements in Russia, which wished to direct con- 
structive developments, the President of the United States 
determined to send a commission of special envoys to the 
Russian government. This commission was entrusted with 
the responsibility of conveying to the people and the revolu- 
tionary government of Russia a message of good will, hope, 
encouragement and support, and offering service and the 
experience and the methods of America in establishing and 
using free institutions. The Russian revolutionary govern- 
ment represents the will of the masses of the Russian peo- 
ple. That the American commission should receive the 
fullest confidence and trust of the revolutionary Russian 
government there were appointed upon the commission rep- 
resentatives of American workers and advocates of human 
freedom. In appointing the commission, President Wilson 
selected, among others, James Duncan, First Vice-President 

[332] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

of the American Federation of Labor and President of the 
Granite Cutters' International Association of America. Mr. 
Duncan was the first representative of organized labor ever 
appointed on a diplomatic mission of the Government of 
the United States. 

From several different sources suggestions were made for 
the holding of international labor conferences. Early in 
the spring it was suggested that a meeting of the Interna- 
tional Federation of Trade Unions be held in Berne, Switz- 
erland, to consider several matters, among which the most 
important were the continuance of the International Feder- 
ation of Trade Unions, the publication of the Weekly News 
Service of the International Secretariat, and the program 
adopted by the Leeds Conference, which met in England in 
July, 1916. 

The Leeds program was a declaration formulated by 
representatives of the labor movements of the allied 
countries. It contains proposals, which it was suggested 
labor ought to seek to have incorporated in the peace treaty 
that shall be drawn up at the close of the war. 

It is our opinion that the Leeds program is not suf- 
ficiently constructive or comprehensive to enable the work- 
ers to take best advantage of the opportunity that will come 
in the Peace Congress. We feel that the Peace Congress 
will necessarily have to recommend some fundamental pro- 
posals for the better organization of international rela- 
tions in order that in the future there may be some perma- 
nent agencies for dealing with the problems that arise in in- 
ternational affairs and to enable the nations to cooperate for 
the better management of their common interests and their 
individual needs. 

Labor is vitally interested in the character and the scope 
of such proposals and can not afford to neglect the prepara- 
tion of a concrete program. The Leeds program does not 
contain suggestions dealing with this broader problem of in- 
ternational organization. Many of the specific articles in 
the Leeds program are concerned with matters of a legisla- 
tive nature, many of which in our country come under the 
jurisdiction of the several states and not of the federal 
government. For this reason alone, it would be inexpedient, 
so far as our country is concerned, to have these subjects 
included in the terms of an international peace treaty. 

[333] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

The feeling aroused by the war is so intense, and the cus- 
toms affecting communications between peoples of warring 
countries are so unfavorable, that the proposed Berne con- 
ference was not held. 

When the Russian situation became very acute and the 
impact of external and internal forces aroused serious ap- 
prehension as to the future of that country, there was an 
effort among certain Russian leaders to secure an interna- 
tional conference of labor representatives, either in Russia 
or in some neutral country. Stockholm was suggested. 
Labor representatives, chiefly from neutral countries and 
from the central allied powers, went to Stockholm to carry 
out this purpose. However, a general conviction prevailed 
that the forces controlling and perhaps manipulating the 
proposed Stockholm conference, were really disingenuous 
and were in furtherance of the interests of autocracy with 
the hope of misleading the working people of all countries. 
We believe that the purposes of those directing the Stock- 
holm movement were of such character as has been properly 
designated by the term, "peace aggressive." 

The labor movements of the United States and Great 
Britain felt that they could not send representatives to 
Stockholm and act in good faith with their own governments 
and fellow citizens who were sacrificing for the cause of 
human justice and democracy. Therefore the American 
labor movement refused to send representatives. The Brit- 
ish labor movement at first acted in accord with the sug- 
gestion of Arthur Henderson, then a member of the Brit- 
ish Cabinet, and voted to send delegates. However, when 
the British government refused to issue passports to the 
British delegates and Lloyd George published correspon- 
dence in which it was stated that Kerensky, the head of 
the Russian government, did not indorse the Stockholm con- 
ference as the proposition to hold a conference came origi- 
nally from Russian leaders, it was felt that the conference 
did not carry enough sanction to make it effective. 

The French government also refused to issue passports 
to French delegates. 

In the meanwhile the British labor party issued invita- 
tions to the labor movements of the allied and neutral 
countries to attend an international conference in London in 
August. Exchange of telegrams disclosed the fact that 

[334] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

neither the labor movement of Great Britain nor of France 
was consulted as to whether these conferences should be 
held. As a consequence the fraternal delegates to the Brit- 
ish Trade Union Congress were instructed not to attend that 
conference but to attend the conference called by the labor 
movements of the allied countries September 10 at London. 
This in addition to their duty to attend the British Trade 
Union Congress the week beginning September 3. In his 
cablegram President Gompers said that the American 
Federation of Labor was the official representative of the 
organized workers of America and that it could not and 
would not share with any political party the right to repre- 
sent the workers of this country. The London conference 
of August 28 and 29 consisted of representatives of political 
movements rather than labor movements. 

As the fraternal delegates of the A. F. of L. to the British 
Trade Union Congress would be in England at that time, the 
Executive Council authorized them to represent the Ameri- 
can labor movement in the London conference. This au- 
thorization was given and the fraternal delegates, Mr. 
Golden and Mr. Lord, participated in the London conference. 
Their report will be made to this convention. 



Peace Terms 

From the report of the Executive Council to the Buffalo 
Convention, November, 1917: 

It is an imperative duty from which there is no escape 
that wage-earners as well as all other citizens of this Re- 
public support our government in its righteous effort to 
defend principles of humanity and to establish democracy in 
international relations. Because we desire permanent peace 
it is our duty to fight and sacrifice until these purposes can 
be achieved. 

When nations can send representatives to negotiate peace 
terms in accord with this concept, we maintain that the 
basic provisions of the peace treaty should be formulated 
with regard to the rights and welfare of the men, women, 
and children constituting the nations rather than the gov- 
ernments of the nations. The government should be only 

[335] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

an instrumentality of the people instead of dominating and 
actuating their lives. This terrific war must wipe out all 
vestiges of the old concept that the nation belongs to the 
ruler or government. 

We hold that the same principles should apply to relations 
between nations and that secret diplomacy should be re- 
placed by diplomatic representatives responsible to their own 
people and received by either the Parliament of the country 
to which they are accredited or by a representative of the 
people, responsible to them. 

We made recommendation in our report to the Baltimore 
Convention for the organization of international relations. 
Existing international anarchy has invited imperialism on 
the part of strong governments and has furnished oppor- 
tunity and occasion for war. Militarism finds its justifica- 
tion in international anarchy and can be abolished only 
when international relations are organized. 

There is no element in all nations more concerned in the 
achievement of conditions making for permanent peace be- 
tween nations than the working people, who constitute the 
majority of every nation. Working people have never been 
properly represented in diplomatic affairs. The future must 
be constructed upon broader lines than the past. We insist, 
therefore, that the government of the United States provide 
adequate and direct representatives of wage-earners among 
the plenipotentiaries sent to the Peace Congress, and urge 
upon the labor movements of other countries to take like 
action. 

We urge the adoption of the following declarations as 
the basis upon which peace must be negotiated : 

i. The combination of the free peoples of the world in 
a common covenant for genuine and practical cooperation 
to secure justice and therefore peace in relations between 
nations. 

2. Governments derive their just power from the consent 
of the governed. 

3. No political or economic restrictions meant to benefit 
some nations and to cripple or embarras others. 

4. No indemnities or reprisals based upon vindictive pur- 
poses or deliberate desire to injure, but to right manifest 
wrongs. 

5. Recognition of the rights of small nations and of the 

[336] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

principle "No people must be forced under sovereignty 
under which it does not wish to live." 

6. No territorial changes or adjustment of power except 
in furtherance of the welfare of the peoples affected and 
in furtherance of world peace. 

In addition to these basic principles, which are based 
upon declarations of our President of these United States, 
there should be incorporated in the treaty that shall con- 
stitute the guide of nations in the new period and condi- 
tions into which we enter at the close of the war the follow- 
ing declarations, fundamental to the best interests of all 
nations and of vital importance to wage-earners: 

1. No article or commodity shall be shipped or delivered 
in international commerce in the production of which chil- 
dren under the age of 16 have been employed or permitted 
to work. 

2. It shall be declared that the basic workday in industry 
and commerce shall not exceed eight hours. 

3. Involuntary servitude shall not exist except as a pun- 
ishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly 
convicted. 

4. Establishment of trial by jury. 

The war has swept away the ante bellum world and has 
rendered antiquated and useless many institutions. Others 
have broken down under the difficulties and problems of war 
needs. We can benefit from our experiences by retaining 
that which has demonstrated its efficiency and rejecting that 
which has failed. Many of the problems of reconstruction 
can not be worked out during the war while feeling is so 
intense. With the coming of peace will come a different 
attitude of mind on the part of all. The situation and oppor- 
tunities which peace will bring will be without precedent. It 
is of paramount importance that Labor shall be free and 
unembarrassed in helping to shape the principles and 
agencies for the future. 

We suggest therefore that all prejudice and partisan 
spirit can best be eliminated by reconstructing international 
labor relations, thus bringing to new problems and a new 
era activity and cooperation unhampered and unperverted 
by former alliances or old feuds. 

The basis of reconstruction should be the trade union 
[337] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

movements of the various countries. We recommend that 
an international labor conference of representatives of the 
trade union movements of all countries be held at the same 
time and place as the World Peace Congress that Labor 
may be in touch with plans under consideration and may- 
have the benefit of information and counsel of those par- 
ticipating in the Congress. 



Labor and the War 

From the report of the Executive Council to the American 
Federation of Labor convention held in Buffalo, N. Y., 
November, ipiy. 

It was not long after the Baltimore Convention of the 
American Federation of Labor that it became plain that 
our country could not long avoid taking part in the European 
war. The war had become world-wide in scope and in- 
volved issues of such a nature that our Republic could not 
much; longer remain neutral. 

The Imperial German Government flagrantly imposed up- 
on the neutrality of this country and the unbroken relations 
of good-will and friendship that had existed between the 
people of the United States and the German people since 
the formation of our Republic. When it became plain that 
the German government intended to trifle ruthlessly with its 
pledges to our government and with the lives and rights of 
our citizens, self-respect and appreciation of the rights of 
our citizens demanded that there should be no receding 
from our definition of rights and principles. 

Under all circumstances it is the duty of any government 
to protect its people against willful and wholesale murder. 
A government unable or unwilling to make every sacrifice 
in maintaining that principle is unworthy the respect and 
support of the people and should be overthrown. 

A people unwilling to make the supreme sacrifice in sup- 
port of the government which undertakes to make that prin- 
ciple good are undeserving to live and enjoy the privilege 
of free, democratic government. 

The situation in which our country found itself is best set 
[338] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

forth in that masterly address which President Wilson made 
to the Congress of the United States in joint session on 
that memorable April 2, 1917. In addition to the value of 
the address because of the information it contains we wish 
to aid in immortalizing it by reproducing it in our report : 

Address by the President 

Gentlemen of the Congress, I have called the Congress 
into extraordinary session because there are serious, very 
serious, choices of policy to be made, and made immediately, 
which it was neither right nor constitutionally permissible 
that I should assume the responsibility of making. 

On the third of February last I officially laid before you 
the extraordinary announcement of the Imperial German 
Government that on and after the first day of February it 
was its purpose to put aside all restraints of law or of human- 
ity and use its submarines to sink every vessel that sought 
to approach either the ports of Great Britain and Ireland 
or the western coasts of Europe or any of the ports con- 
trolled by the enemies of Germany within the Mediter- 
ranean. That had seemed to be the object of the German 
submarine warfare earlier in the war, but since April of 
last year the Imperial Government had somewhat restrained 
the commanders of its undersea craft in conformity with 
its promise then given to us that passenger boats should 
not be sunk and that due warning would be given to all 
other vessels which its submarines might seek to destroy, 
when no resistance was offered or escape attempted, and 
care taken that their crews were given at least a fair chance 
to save their lives in their open boats. The precautions 
taken were meager and haphazard enough, as was proved 
in distressing instance after instance in the progress of the 
cruel and unmanly business, but a certain degree of restraint 
was observed. The new policy has swept every restriction 
aside. Vessels of every kind, whatever their flag, their 
character, their cargo, their destination, their errand, have 
been ruthlessly sent to the bottom without warning and 
without thought of help or mercy for those on board, the 
vessels of friendly neutrals along with those of belligerents. 
Even hospital ships and ships carrying relief to the sorely 
bereaved and stricken people of Belgium, though the latter 

[339] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

were provided with safe conduct through the prescribed areas 
by the German government itself and were distinguished 
by unmistakable marks of identity, have been sunk with the 
same reckless lack of compassion and of principle. 

I was for a little while unable to believe that such things 
would in fact be done by any government that had hitherto 
subscribed to the humane practices of civilized nations. In- 
ternational law had its origin in the attempt to set up some 
law which would be respected and observed upon the seas, 
where no nation had right of dominion and where lay the 
free highways of the world. By painful stage after stage 
has that law been built up, with meager enough results, 
indeed, after all was accomplished that could be accom- 
plished, but always with a clear view, at least, of what the 
heart and conscience of mankind demanded. This minimum 
of right the German government has swept aside under the 
plea of retaliation and necessity and because it had no 
weapons which it could use at sea except these which it is 
impossible to employ as it is employing them without throw- 
ing to the winds all scruples of humanity or of respect for 
the understandings that were supposed to underlie the 
intercourse of the world. I am not now thinking of the 
loss of property, immense and serious as that is, but only 
of the wanton and wholesale destruction of the lives of 
non-combatants, men, women, and children, engaged in pur- 
suits which have always, even in the darkest periods of 
modern history, been deemed innocent and legitimate. Prop- 
erty can be paid for; the lives of peaceful and innocent people 
can not be. The present German submarine warfare against 
commerce is a warfare against mankind. 

It is a warfare against all nations. American ships have 
been sunk, American lives taken, in ways which it has stirred 
us very deeply to learn of, but the ships and the people of 
other neutral and friendly nations have been sunk and over- 
whelmed in the waters in the same way. There has been 
no discrimination. The challenge is to all mankind. Each 
nation must decide for itself how it will meet it. The choice 
we make for ourselves must be made with a moderation of 
counsel and a temperateness of judgment befitting our char- 
acter and our motives as a nation. We must put excited 
feeling away. Our motive will not be revenge or the vic- 
torious assertion- of the physical might of the nation, but 

[340] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

only the vindication of right, of human right, of which we 
are only a single champion. 

When I addressed the Congress on the twenty-sixth of 
February last I thought that it would suffice to assert our 
neutral rights with arms, our right to use the seas against 
unlawful interference, our right to keep our people safe 
against unlawful violence. But armed neutrality, it now 
appears, is impracticable. Because submarines are in effect 
outlaws when used as the German submarines have been 
used against merchant shipping, it is impossible to defend 
ships against their attacks as the law of nations has assumed 
that merchantmen would defend themselves against pri- 
vateers or cruisers, visible craft giving chase upon the open 
sea. It is common prudence in such circumstances, grim 
necessity indeed, to endeavor to destroy them before they 
have shown their own intention. They must be dealt with 
upon sight, if dealt with at all. The German government 
denies the right of neutrals to use arms at all within the 
areas of the sea which it has proscribed, even in the defense 
of rights which no modern publicist has ever before ques- 
tioned their right to defend. The intimation is conveyed 
that the armed guards which we have placed on our 
merchant ships will be treated as beyond the pale of law and 
subject to be dealt with as pirates would be. Armed neu- 
trality is ineffectual enough at best; in such circumstances 
and in the face of such pretensions it is worse than ineffec- 
tual; it is likely only to produce what it was meant to 
prevent; it is practically certain to draw us into the war 
without either the rights or the effectiveness of belliger- 
ents. There is one choice we can not make, we are in- 
capable of making; we will not choose the path of submission 
and suffer the most sacred rights of our nation and our 
people to be ignored or violated. The wrongs against which 
we now array ourselves are no common wrongs; they cut 
at the very roots of human life. 

With a profound sense of the solemn and even tragical 
character of the step I am taking and of the grave respon- 
sibilities which it involves, but in unhesitating obedience to 
what I deem my constitutional duty, I advise that the Con- 
gress declare the recent course of the Imperial German 
Government to be in fact nothing less than war against the 
government and people of the United States; that it formally 

[341] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

accept the status of belligerent which has thus been thrust 
upon it; and that it take immediate steps not only to put 
the country in a more thorough state of defense, but also to 
exert all its power and employ all its resources to bring 
the government of the German Empire to terms and end 
the war. 

What this will involve is clear. It will involve the 
utmost practicable cooperation in counsel and action with 
the governments now at war with Germany, and, as incident 
to that, the extension to those governments of the most 
liberal financial credits, in order that our resources may so 
far as possible be added to theirs. It will involve the organ- 
ization and mobilization of all the material resources of the 
country to supply the materials of war and serve the in- 
cidental needs of the nation in the most abundant and yet 
most economical and efficient way possible. It will involve 
the immediate full equipment of the navy in all respects 
but particularly in supplying it with the best means of 
dealing with the enemy's submarines. It will involve the 
immediate addition to the armed forces of the United States 
already provided for by law in case of war of at least 500,000 
men, who should, in my judgment, be chosen upon the 
principle of universal liability to service, and also the 
authorization of subsequent additional increments of equal 
force so soon as they may be needed and can be handled in 
training. It will involve also, of course, the granting of 
adequate credits to the government, sustained, I hope, so 
far as they can equitably be sustained by the present genera^ 
Hon, by well-conceived taxation. 

I say sustained so far as may be equitable by taxation 
because it seems to me that it would be most unwise to base 
the credits which will now be necessary entirely on money 
borrowed. It is our duty, I most respectfully urge, to pro- 
tect our people so far as we "may against the very serious 
hardships and evils which would be likely to arise out of 
the inflation which would be produced by vast loans. 

In carrying out the measures by which these things are to 
be accomplished we must keep constantly in mind the wisdom 
of interfering as little as possible in our own preparation and 
in the equipment of our own military forces with the duty — 
for it will be a very practical duty — of supplying the nations 
already at war with Germany with the materials which they 

[342] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

can obtain only from us or by our assistance. They are 
in the field and we should help them in every way to be 
effective there. 

I shall take the liberty of suggesting through the several 
executive departments of the government, for the con- 
sideration of your committees, measures for the accomplish- 
ment of the several objects I have mentioned. I hope that 
it will be your pleasure to deal with them as having been 
framed after very careful thought by the branch of the 
government upon which the responsibility of conducting the 
war and safeguarding the nation will most directly fall. 

While we do these things, these deeply momentous things, 
let us be very clear, and make very clear to all the world, 
what our motives and our objects are. My own thought has 
not been driven from its habitual and normal course by the 
unhappy events of the last two months, and I do not believe 
that the thought of the nation has been altered or clouded 
by them. I have exactly the same things in mind now 
that I had in mind when I addressed the Senate on the 
twenty-second of January last; the same that I had in mind 
when I addressed the Congress on the third of February 
and on the twenty-second of February. Our object now, 
as then, is to vindicate the principles of peace and justice in 
the life of the world as against selfish and autocratic power 
and to set up amongst the really free and self-governed peo- 
ples of the world such a concert of purpose and of action as 
will henceforth ensure the observance of those principles. 
Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable where the peace 
of the world is involved and the freedom of its peoples, and 
the menace to that peace and freedom lies in the existence of 
autocratic governments backed by organized force which is 
controlled wholly by their will, not by the will of their peo- 
ple. We have seen the last of neutrality in such circum- 
stances. We are at the beginning of an age in which it will 
be insisted that the same standards of conduct and of re- 
sponsibility for wrong done shall be observed among nations 
and their governments that are observed among the indi- 
vidual citizens of civilized states. 

We have no quarrel zvith the German people. We have 
no feeling towards them but one of sympathy and friendship. 
It was not upon their impulse that their government acted in 
entering this war. It was not with their previous knowl- 

[343] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

edge or approval. It was a war determined upon as wars 
used to be determined upon in the old, unhappy days when 
peoples were nowhere consulted by their rulers and wars 
were provoked and waged in the interest of dynasties or of 
little groups of ambitious men who were accustomed to use 
their fellow men as pawns and tools. Self-governed nations 
do not fill their neighbor states with spies or set the course 
of intrigue to bring about some critical posture of affairs 
which will give them an opportunity to strike and make 
conquest. Such designs can be successfully worked out 
only under cover and where no man has the right to ask 
questions. Cunningly contrived plans of deception or ag- 
gression, carried, it may be, from generation to generation, 
can be worked out and kept from the light only within the 
privacy of courts or behind the carefully guarded con- 
fidences of a narrow and privileged class. They are happily 
impossible where public opinion commands and insists upon 
full information concerning all the nation's affairs. 

A steadfast concert for peace can never be maintained 
except by a partnership of democratic nations. No auto- 
cratic government could be trusted to keep faith within 
it or observe its covenants. It must be a league of honor, 
a partnership of opinion. Intrigue would eat its vitals 
away; the plottings of inner circles who could plan what 
they would and render account to no one would be a cor- 
ruption seated at its very heart. Only free peoples can 
hold their purpose and their honor steady to a common 
end and prefer the interests of mankind to any narrow 
interest of their own. 

Does not every American feel that assurance has been 
added to our hope for the future peace of the world by the 
wonderful and heartening things that have been happening 
within the last few weeks in Russia? Russia was known by 
those who knew it best to have been always in fact demo- 
cratic at heart, in all the vital habits of her thought, in all 
the intimate relationships of her people that spoke their 
natural instinct, their habitual attitude towards life. The 
autocracy that crowned the summit of her political structure, 
long as it had stood and terrible as was the reality of its 
power, was not in fact Russian in origin, character, or 
purpose; and now it has been shaken off and the great, 
generous Russian people have been added in all their naive 

[344] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

majesty and might to the forces that are fighting for freedom 
in the world, for justice, and for peace. Here is a fit 
partner for a League of Honor. 

One of the things that has served to convince us that the 
Prussian autocracy was not and could never be our friend 
is that from the very outset of the present war it has filled 
our unsuspecting communities and even our offices of gov- 
ernment with spies and set criminal intrigues everywhere 
afoot against our national unity of counsel, our peace within 
and without, our industries and our commerce. Indeed it 
is now evident that its spies were here even before the war 
began; and it is unhappily not a matter of conjecture, but 
a fact proved in our courts of justice, that the intrigues 
which have more than once come perilously near to dis- 
turbing the peace and dislocating the industries of the 
country have been carried on at the instigation, with the 
support, and even under the personal direction of official 
agents of the Imperial Government accredited to the Govern- 
ment of the United States. Even in checking these things 
and trying to extirpate them we have sought to put the 
most generous interpretation possible upon them because we 
knew that their source lay, not in any hostile feeling or 
purpose of the German people towards us (who were, no 
doubt, as ignorant of them as we ourselves were), but only 
in the selfish designs of a government that did what it 
pleased and told its people nothing. But they have played 
their part in serving to convince us at last that that govern- 
ment entertains no real friendship for us and means to act 
against our peace and security at its convenience. That it 
means to stir up enemies against us at our very doors the 
intercepted note to the German Minister at Mexico City is 
eloquent evidence. 

We are accepting this challenge of hostile purpose be- 
cause we know that in such a government, following such 
methods, we can never have a friend; and that in the pres- 
ence of its organized power, always lying in wait to ac- 
complish we know not what purpose, there can be no 
assured security for the democratic governments of the 
world. We are now about to accept gage of battle with 
this natural foe to liberty and shall, if necessary, spend the 
whole force of the nation to check and nullify its pretensions 
and its power. We are glad now that we see the facts with 

[345] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

no veil of false pretense about them, to fight thus for the 
ultimate peace of the world and for the liberation of its 
peoples, the German peoples included: for the rights of na- 
tions great and small and the privilege of men everywhere 
to choose their way of life and of obedience. The world 
must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must, be planted 
upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We have 
no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no do- 
minion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material 
compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We 
are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We 
shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as secure 
as the faith and freedom of nations can make them. 

Just because we fight without rancor and without selfish 
object, seeking nothing for ourselves but what we shall wish 
to share with all free peoples, we shall, I feel confident, con- 
duct our operations as belligerents without passion and our- 
selves observe with proud punctilio the principles of right 
and of fair play we profess to be fighting for. 

I have said nothing of the governments allied with the 
Imperial Government of Germany because they have not 
made war upon us or challenged us to defend our right and 
our honor. The Austro-Hungarian Government has, indeed, 
avowed its unqualified endorsement and acceptance of the 
reckless and lawless submarine warfare adopted now without 
disguise by the Imperial German Government, and it ha3 
therefore not been possible for this government to receive 
Count Tarnowski, the Ambassador recently accredited to 
this government by the Imperial and Royal Government of 
Austria-Hungary; but that government has not actually en- 
gaged in warfare against citizens of the United States on 
the seas, and I take the liberty, for the present at least, of 
postponing a discussion of our relations with the authorities 
at Vienna. We enter this war only where we are clearly 
forced into it because there are no other means of defending 
our rights. 

It will be all the easier for us to conduct ourselves as 
belligerents in a high spirit of right and fairness because 
we act without animus, not in enmity towards a people or 
with the desire to bring any injury or disadvantage upon 
them, but only in armed opposition to an irresponsible 
government which has thrown aside all considerations of 

[346] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

humanity and of right and is running amuck. We are, let 
me say again, the sincere friends of the German people, and 
shall desire nothing so much as the early reestablishment 
of intimate relations of mutual advantage between us — how- 
ever hard it may be for them, for the time being, to believe 
that this is spoken from our hearts. We have borne with 
their present government through all these bitter months 
because of that friendship — exercising a patience and for- 
bearance which would otherwise have been impossible. We 
shall, happily, still have an opportunity to prove that friend- 
ship in our daily attitude and actions towards the millions 
of men and women of German birth and native sympathy 
who live amongst us and share our life, and we shall be 
proud to prove it towards all who are in fact loyal to their 
neighbors and to the government in the hour of test. They 
are, most of them, as true and loyal Americans as if they 
had never known any other fealty or allegiance. They will 
be prompt to stand with us in rebuking and restraining the 
few who may be of a different mind and purpose. If there 
should be disloyalty, it will be dealt with with a firm hand 
of stern repression; but, if it lifts its head at all, it will 
lift it only here and there and without countenance except 
from a lawless and malignant few. 

It is a distressing and oppressive duty, Gentlemen of the 
Congress, which I have performed in thus addressing you. 
There are, it may be, many months of fiery trial and sacrifice 
ahead of us. It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful 
people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of 
all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. 
But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight 
for the things which we have always carried nearest our 
hearts — for democracy, for the right of those who submit to 
authority to have a voice in their own governments, for 
the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal 
dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall 
bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world 
itself at last free. To such a task we can dedicate our 
lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and every- 
thing that we have, with the pride of those who know that 
the day has come when America is privileged to spend her 
blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth 

[347] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

and happiness and the peace which she has treasured. God 
helping her, she can do no other. 



CONGRESS DECLARES WAR 

The Executive Council Report continues: 

The Congress of the United States on April 6 passed a 
resolution declaring war upon the Imperial Government of 
Germany and directed the President of the United States 
to employ the armed forces of our country to carry the 
purposes of the war to a successful end. We made every 
effort to prevail upon Congress to avoid compulsory military 
service, but we were not successful, the law having been 
enacted for the drafting of all available men between the 
ages of 21 and 30, inclusive. 

The necessity for the development of plans for defense 
of the nation became imperative. The scope of the war 
was so gigantic and the nature of modern warfare so com- 
plex that mobilization of our nation necessitated reorganiza- 
tion of the entire nation from a peace to a war basis. Such 
plans affect the life and the work of the entire nation. 
Whether in peace or in war tools are the basic instrumental- 
ities for all creative work. The determination of defense 
plans was of vital concern to wage-earners. The issues 
and the consequences were so tremendous that responsible 
agents had to have ready plans to meet any emergency. It 
was of vital importance that those immediately affected by 
these plans should have a voice in their determination. 
Clearly if wage-earners, as represented in the organized 
labor movement, remained aloof from all participation in 
defense activities and preparations, they would have to 
accept the determination of those outside of, and perhaps 
hostile to, the labor movement who either had no personal 
knowledge of the lives and problems of workers or were the 
active enemies of organized labor. If wage-earners did not 
take a responsible part in determining our relations to war 
work that field would be left undisputed to those not im- 
mediately concerned in their welfare. 

In addition to this plain duty of defending their rights and 
interests, the radical changes necessary for mobilization 
afforded opportunity that would either be used by the wage- 

[348] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

earners in furtherance of human welfare and progress or 
would be used by the agents of reaction and for the en- 
trenchment of the privileges of wealth. 

The only justification for the destruction of war is that 
the sweeping aside of existing conditions affords opportunity 
for the establishment of new ideals and conditions based 
upon broader and truer concepts of human rights. 

It was in view of this situation that the Executive Council 
approved the proposition submitted to them by President 
Gompers that a conference of the representatives of the 
national and international trade unions be called at Wash- 
ington to consider the position which American labor should 
take toward the war situation. Accordingly, a letter was 
sent to the representative officials of all national organiza- 
tions, both those affiliated to the A. F. of L. and those not 
affiliated, asking them to meet in Washington in the A. F. of 
L. Building March 12. The E. C. met on March 9 and 
devoted the following three days of the preparation of a 
statement to be submitted to the conference for considera- 
tion and action. There were present at that conference, 
in addition to the members of the E. C, 148 representatives 
of 79 affiliated organizations, 5 unaffiliated organizations, and 
5 departments of the A. F. of L. The full list of those 
present is as follows: 

Executive Council — President Samuel Gompers; Sec- 
retary, Frank Morrison; Treasurer, John B. Len- 
non; First Vice-President, James Duncan; Second 
Vice-President, James O'Connell; Third Vice-Presi- 
dent, Joseph F. Valentine; Fourth Vice-President, 
John R. Alpine; Fifth Vice-President, H. B. Perham; 
Sixth Vice-President, Frank Duffy; Seventh Vice- 
President, William Green; Eighth Vice-President, 
William D. Mahon. 
Asbestos Workers — Jos. A. Mullaney, V. E. McLelland. 
Bakery and Confectionery — A. A. Myrup, Chas. F. Hoh- 

mann. 
Bill Posters and Billers — P. F. Murphy, Wm. McCarthy. 
Blacksmiths — G. C. Van Domes. 
Boilermakers — J. A. Franklin, Chas. F. Scott, A. E. 

Barksdale. 
Bookbinders — A. P. Sovey. 

Boot and Shoe Workers — C. L. Baine, Collis Lovely. 
[349] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

Brewery Workmen — A. J. Kugler, Joseph Obergfell, 

John Sullivan. 
Bricklayers — Thos. R. Preece. 
Bridge and Structural Iron Workers — Jos. E. McClory, 

Edward Ryan. 
Carmen, Railway — M. F. Ryan, J. F. McCreery, J. S. 

Wilds, R. E. Hamilton. 
Carpenters, United Brotherhood — Frank Duffy. 
Carriage, Wagon, Automobile Workers — Wm. A 

Logan. 
Cigarmakers — G. W. Perkins, Samuel Gompers. 
Clerks, Post Office — Thos. F. Flaherty. 
Clerks, Railway — Jas. J. Forrester. 
Clerks, Railway Postal — Carl Freeman. 
Clerks, Retail — E. E. Baker. 
Coopers — Andrew C. Hughes. 
Diamond Workers — Andries Meyer. 
Electrical Workers — F. J. McNulty, Wm. A. Hogan, W. 

S. Godshall, J. J. Purcell, George L. Kelly, J. S. 

McDonagh. 
Elevator Constructors — Frank Feeney, Frank Schneider. 
Engravers, Photo — Matthew Woll. 
Firemen — Timothy Healy, Newton A. James. 
Fur Workers — A. W. Miller. 
Garment Workers, United — Thos. A. Rickert, B. A. 

Larger, Abe Berkson. 
Glass Bottle Blowers — John A. Voll, Harry Jenkins, 

James Maloney. 
Glass Workers, Flint — Wm. P. Clark. 
Granite Cutters — James Duncan. 
Hat and Cap Makers — M. Zuckerman, Max Zaritsky. 
Hatters — John W. Sculley, Martin Lawlor. 
Hodcarriers — D. DAdessandro. 
Horseshoers — Hubert S. Marshall, John F. Kane. 
Hotel and Restaurant Employees — Edward Flore. 
Iron, Tin and Steel Workers — John Williams., M. F. 

Tighe. 
Jewelry Workers — Julius Birnbaum, Abraham Green- 
stein. 
Lace Operatives — David L. Gould. 
Lathers, Wood, Wire — Wm. J. McSorley. 
Laundry Workers — Harry L. Morrison. 
[350] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

Leather Workers on Horse Goods — W. E. Bryan. 
Longshoremen — Anthony J. Chlopek, Wm. F. Dempsey. 
Machinists — Wm. H. Johnston, Fred. Hewitt, E. L. 

Tucker, A. E. Holder. 
Maintenance of Way Employees — Allan E. Barker, 

Henry Irwin. 
Masters, Mates and Pilots — J. H. Pruett, Ulster Davis, 

Alfred B. Devlin, Robert S. Lavender. 
Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen — Homer D. Call. 
Metal Polishers — W. W. Britton. 
Metal Workers, Sheet — John J. Hynes, O. E. Hoard, 

Harry H. Stewart. 
Mine Workers, United — Wm. Green, Van Bittner, Wm. 

Diamond. 
Molders, Iron — John P. Frey. 
Musicians — Jos. N. Weber, J. E. Birdsell. 
Painters — Geo. F. Hedrick, J. C. Skemp. 
Pattern Makers — James Wilson, James L. Gernon, A. 

J. Berres. 
Paving Cutters — Carl Bergstrom. 
Plasterers, Operative — E. J. McGivern, Chas. Smith. 
Plate Printers — Jas. E. Goodyear, William G. Holder. 
Plumbers — John R. Alpine, Wm. J. Spencer, Wm. J. 

Tracy. 
Potters, Operative — Edward Menge, Frank H. Hutchins, 

John T. Wood, S. M. Moore. 
Print Cutters — Ralph T. Holman. 
Printing Pressmen — Jos. C. Orr, Henry J. Hardy. 
Quarry Workers — Fred W. Suitor. 
Railway Employees, Street and Electric — W. D. 

Mahon. 
Roofers, Composition — J. T. Hurley. 
Seamen's Union — Andrew Furuseth, V. A. Olander. 
Signalmen, Railroad — A. E. Adams. 
Steel Plate Transferrers — Benj. Goldsworthy. 
Stage Employees, Theatrical — Chas. C. Shay. 
Steam Shovel and Dredgemen — T. J. Brady. 
Stereotypers and Electrotypers — James S. Briggs. 
Stonecutters — Sam Griggs, Walter W. Drayer. 
Switchmen — S. E. Heberling. 
Tailors — Thos. Sweeney. 
Teachers — Chas. B. Stillman. 
[351] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

Teamsters — Daniel J. Tobin, P. H. Jennings. 
Telegraphers, Railroad — H. B. Perham, J. F. Miller. 
Textile Workers — John Golden. 
Tobacco Workers — A. McAndrew, E. Lewis Evans. 
Tunnel and Subway Constructors — Michael J. Carraher, 

Tito Pacelli. 
Upholsterers — Jas. H. Hatch, John Hanley. 
Weavers, American Wire — John F. Curley. 
White Rats Actors — Jack Hayden. 

Unaffiliated Organizations. 

Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen — W. S. Carter. 

Railway Trainmen — W. G. Lee. 

Railway Conductors — L. E. Sheppard. 

Locomotive Engineers — W. S. Stone. 

National Window Glass Workers — Herbert Thomas. 

A. F. of L. Department 

Building Trades Department — John Donlin. 
Metal Trades Department — A. J. Berres. 
Mining Department — James Lord. 
Railroad Employees Department — A. O. Wharton. 
Union Label Trades Department — J. W. Hays. 

The declaration was submitted to the conference. A 
spirit of intense seriousness pervaded the deliberations. The 
representatives of the workers in practically every trade had 
encountered new situations developing out of defense meas- 
ures that made them realize the nearness of war and its 
consequence to the labor movement. (The declaration is 
published separately in this volume.) 



From the report of the Committee on International Re- 
lations to the American Federation of Labor convention held 
in Buffalo, N. Y., November, 1917: 

Your committee having under consideration subjects re- 
ferred to it, begs leave to report under the caption, "Inter- 
national Labor Relations," of the Executive Council's Re- 
port : 

[352] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

We hold and declare that no movement can properly 
function, regardless of whether it be economic, social or 
political, in the absence of free speech, free press and the 
constitutional rights of the people to exercise self-govern- 
ment. 

After all, democracy is the first essential in the lives of 
the peoples of all nations. No movement of any nature can 
properly function without freedom of action and self-gov- 
ernment, which are inseparably associated with democracy. 
The trade union movement, first in importance in the eco- 
nomic field, is necessarily dependent on democracy in the 
organic form of governments. There was no real trade 
union movement in Russia, nor can there be in any other 
country that is burdened with autocracy. Upon these funda- 
mentals rest the successful achievements of human rights, 
freedom and liberty, economic, social and political justice. 

Under this caption, several subjects interesting and of 
vital importance to our movement and to our country are 
set forth with accuracy and clearness, and are worthy of 
the fullest perusal and keenest thought. We urge all dele- 
gates and all others to carefully read all that is said on this 
subject. It particularly refers to the change in Russia from 
despotism to opportunity for freedom; the declaration of 
basic principles and policies of the provisional government 
of Russia and the appointment of a commission by Presi- 
dent Wilson to visit Russia on a diplomatic mission on be- 
half of the Government of the United States. 

We note with keen interest the appointment of James 
Duncan, First Vice-President of the American Federation 
of Labor and President of the Granite Cutters' International 
Association of America, upon this important commission. 
We appreciate the action of President Wilson and felicitate 
the American people upon the wisdom of his selection. 
Upon this important mission full recognition was given to 
the trade union movement, to the workers — the masses — 
and it required one who possessed an intimate basic knowl- 
edge of the rise and development of the labor movement of 
our country, its achievements, its hopes and its aspirations, 
all of which are possessed to a remarkable degree by our es- 
teemed fellow trade-unionist, Brother Duncan. We more- 
over congratulate Brother Duncan upon his selection and 

[353] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

for the eminently successful manner in which he discharged 
the obligations resting upon him. 

We declare that had there been a trade union movement 
in Russia it would have had a stabilizing force and a far- 
reaching beneficent effect in the crisis now resting so 
heavily upon the Russian people. The Russian people have 
lived for centuries in one of the most brutalized autocracies 
that has ever disgraced the pages of history; they were de- 
nied the right of self-government, the right to congregate 
for any economic or political purposes, the right to attain 
an education, and because of these limitations there existed 
a lack of experience that would have been of priceless value 
now in stabilizing and maintaining their new-found freedom. 

The trade union movement, had it existed in Russia, would 
have developed discipline and a central power not of an 
autocratic nature, but a power rather to execute and carry 
into effect the democratically expressed will of the majority 
of the people. 

We note with the greatest satisfaction the cable messages 
of fraternity and good will sent to the people and the pro- 
visional government of the new Russian democracy by 
President Gompers and by the Executive Council of the 
American Federation of Labor. 

Upon the question of conferences held and proposed by 
the International Federation of Trade Unions and other 
associations, we shall have more to say under a separate 
caption. Suffice it at present to say we concur and recom- 
mend for endorsement the action of our officers and the 
Executive Council in connection with these important con- 
ferences. 

Peace Terms 

Upon that portion of the report of the Executive Council 
under the above captain your committee reports as follows: 

There can be no true cooperation from an international 
standpoint except where the elected and responsible repre- 
sentatives of the workers participate under an agreement 
which recognizes and safeguards the rights of each nation 
to fix and declare its own destiny, and yet broad enough, big 
enough and intelligent enough to submerge selfishness and 

[354] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

non-essentials to the common good of the workers of all 
nations. 

Peace terms should presage a condition tending to a last- 
ing peace grounded upon conditions that are just, fair and 
honorable to the peoples of all countries. 

We agree with the Executive Council that "The govern- 
ment should be only an instrumentality of the people instead 
of dominating and actuating their lives," and further, that 
"This terrific war must wipe out all vestiges of the old 
concept that the nation belongs to the ruler or government," 
and moreover, "There is no element in all nations more 
concerned in the achievements of conditions making fOr 
permanent peace between nations than the working people, 
who constitute the majority of every nation. The future 
must be constructed upon broader lines than the past. We 
insist, therefore, that the Government of the United States 
provide adequate and direct representatives of wage-earners 
among the plenipotentiaries sent to the Peace Congress, and 
urge upon the labor movements of other countries to take 
like action." 

The Executive Council offers the following declaration as 
a basis upon which peace should be negotiated: 

1. The combination of the free peoples of the world in 
a common covenant for genuine and practical cooperation 
to secure justice and therefore peace in relations between 
nations. 

2. Governments derive their just power from the con- 
sent of the governed. 

3. No political or economic restrictions meant to ben- 
efit some nations and to cripple or embarrass others. 

4. No indemnities or reprisals based upon vindictive pur- 
poses or deliberate desire to injure, but to right manifest 
wrongs. 

5. Recognition of the rights of small nations and of 
the principle, "No people must be forced under sovereignty 
under which it does not wish to live." 

6. No territorial changes or adjustment of power except 
in furtherance of the welfare of the peoples affected and in 
furtherance of world peace. 

In addition to these basic principles, which are based upon 
declarations of our President of these United States, there 
should be incorporated in the treaty that shall constitute the 

[355] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

guide of nations in the new period and conditions into which 
we enter at the close of the war the following declarations, 
fundamental to the best interests of all nations and of 
vital importance to wage-earners: 

i. No article or commodity shall be shipped or delivered 
in international commerce in the production of which 
children under the age of 16 have been employed or per- 
mitted to work. 

2. It shall be declared that the basic workday in indus- 
try and commerce shall not exceed eight hours. 

3. Involuntary servitude shall not exist except as a 
punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been 
duly convicted. 

4. Establishment of trial by jury. 

Your committee concurs in the foregoing with a clear un- 
derstanding that it is submitted as a basis upon which peace 
terms may be negotiated. 

In addition to the peace terms which the Executive Coun- 
cil recommended in its report, the following proposal should 
be incorporated: The governments of the various nations 
shall exchange labor representatives, according to them the 
same authority and honor that are given to any other diplo- 
mat. Governments have long been accustomed to exchange 
commercial, industrial and financial representatives, and we 
submit that this concept ought to be widened to include 
not only the above-named interests but also those who 
furnish the human labor energies essential to coordination 
for production. 

One of the paramount facts which clearly stands out, 
above all others, in this unprecedented world war is that 
labor is a basic force in producing the materials of civiliza- 
tion and is co-equal with all other essential elements in 
national life. 

It is not only fitting that labor should be given this 
merited recognition, but no other single policy would con- 
tribute more effectually to the democratization of relations 
between nations, thereby strengthening forces and condi- 
tions that make for permanent peace based upon essential 
human justice. 

If a labor conference is held prior to the war's close or 
prior to a time in which the belligerent nations are to par- 
ticipate in a peace conference, labor would be forced to de- 

[356] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

dare specific terms presaging the conditions upon which 
peace should rest; this implies an inadvisable attitude not 
only for labor but, moreover, for our country as well. 
Neither American labor nor the American Government 
should now state the final binding terms of peace. Both, 
however, can be instrumental and exercise a potential force 
at the proper and opportune time. 

This is a world war in which seventeen nations are al- 
lied against the Central Powers. Our government did not 
start this war. We should not, in the light of present events, 
call a peace conference or arbitrarily name inflexible peace 
terms. Such a responsibility rests upon our government 
and is a prerogative and responsibility it should first as- 
sume and exercise. 

We concur in the action of the Executive Council in re- 
fusing to be led into a premature peace conference, whether 
emanating from Germany or originating with her sympa- 
thizers here or elsewhere, and congratulate it upon its 
sagacious judgment in refusing to participate or becoming 
involved in any schemes of this character. 

Conditions are changing from day to day and that which 
appeals to our judgment to-day as proper fundamental peace 
terms may be changed over night. 

Genuine democracy, the great issue now in war, had no 
lodgment in the minds and hearts of those who started this 
war; neither was it an appreciable issue until made so by 
our entrance into the war. Other sound principles may 
develop, which we should like later to make one of the 
basic principles upon which peace should be declared. 

When a peace conference is held it should be at a time 
and place when and where the workers of the vanquished 
as well as those of the triumphant countries may participate 
upon an equality, in order that the best interests of labor 
and of the trade union movement may be fully promoted. 

When victory is achieved none will be quicker to extend 
the fraternal hand of trade union fellowship to the organized 
workers in all countries now at war, or will do so more 
heartily than will the American Federation of Labor. 

In connection with this subject we call special attention 
to the November issue of the American Federationist, which 
contains much interesting and instructive correspondence. 

The San Francisco convention of the American Federa- 
[357] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

tion of Labor in adopting a part of the report of the Com- 
mittee on International Labor Relations, instructed the 
Executive Council to call a labor peace conference of all na- 
tions at the time and place the peace conference is held by 
the belligerent nations, and authorized the Executive Coun- 
cil to send two delegates, one of whom should be the Presi- 
dent of the American Federation of Labor. This action 
was reaffirmed at the Baltimore convention in 1916. 

Your committee recommends that that action be again re- 
affirmed with the addition that at least five delegates, one of 
whom shall be the President of the American Federation of 
Labor, be selected to participate in this conference. 



From the report of the Committee on Resolutions which 
was adopted by the Convention: 

Resolution No. 150 — By Delegate G. W. Perkins of the 
Cigar Makers' International Union: 

WHEREAS, At no time in the history of the labor move- 
ment have conditions been more fraught with dangerous 
situations than at present, this because of our entrance into 
the world's war; and 

WHEREAS, The slightest misstep or mistake in commis- 
sion or omission, or an error in judgment would have placed 
organized labor in a position that it would take years to 
overcome. The situation not of our seeking led to condi- 
tions over which we had no control, and required strong, 
clear-sighted and courageous leadership; and 

WHEREAS, President Samuel Gompers and the Execu- 
tive Council proved equal to the occasion, and proved their 
loyalty to the trade union movement, to labor in general, 
and to our country as well; therefore, be it 

RESOLVED, That this convention in regular session as- 
sembled fully endorse and concur in the course pursued by 
President Gompers and the Executive Council in calling a 
conference of the National and International officers on 
March 12th, nearly one month before war was declared, 
and concur in the action taken at that conference at which 
the representatives of labor declared their unswerving loyalty 
and fidelity to the labor movement and to our common 

[358] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

country in peace or in war, and while asserting that insofar 
as lies within its power labor would suffer none of the 
successes achieved as a result of years of sacrifice and 
struggle to be taken away from labor on any pretext, and 
while hoping for an honorable peace, they declared that if 
our country were drawn into the maelstrom we would stand 
squarely behind the administration and our country, and 
urged that all members of organized labor do likewise. 
Moreover, we unreservedly endorse the action of President 
Gompers and the Executive Council in all of their actions 
in connection with the war and all other labor men in ac- 
cepting positions of trust upon boards, commissions and 
committees, and declare that in their so doing the best in- 
terests of organized labor have been advanced, safeguarded 
and protected. 

Your committee has given most careful consideration to 
all of the matter contained under the caption "Labor and the 
War." The incorporation of the President's address to Con- 
gress was an advisable addition to the official records of this 
convention. It was, also, most appropriate to incorporate 
"American Labor's Position in Peace or in War," adopted 
in Washington, D. C, March 12, 1917. 



[359] 



INTERNATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS 

From the report of the Executive Council to the Ameri- 
can Federation of Labor convention held in St. Paul, Minn., 
June, ipi8. 

Since our report to the Buffalo Convention discussion 
of Labor's international relation has focused around three 
subjects: 

i. Proposals to hold an international labor confer- 
ence in which representatives from enemy countries 
should participate, and 

2. Discussion of "peace terms." 

3. Reconstruction. 

In continuation of the discussion of matters of mutual 
interests at several previous Inter-Allied Labor Conferences, 
British Labor in January sent invitations to the labor move- 
ments of the allied countries to attend an Inter-Allied Labor 
Conference to be held in London commencing February 20, 
1918. The following is the invitation: 

London, 16th January, 1018. 

Dear Gompers: On behalf of the British Trades 
Union Congress Parliamentary Committee and the Na- 
tional Executive of the Labor Party I have the plea- 
sure to send you herewith particulars as to the conditions 
under which we are calling an Inter-Allied Conference 
to commence in London on 20th February, 191 8. 

We trust it will be possible for the American Federa- 
tion of Labor to be represented; for in addition to con- 
sidering the British War Aims and any amendments 
thereto sent in on behalf of the respective countries, 
there is to be considered the very important question 
as to whether the time has arrived when we should hold 
an International Conference. 

A third most important question will be the arrange- 
[360] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

ments to be made for working class representation 
in connection with any official peace conference. Even 
if your Federation does not quite agree with the two 
committees responsible for organizing the Inter-Allied 
Conference, it would be desirable that your representa- 
tives, and especially yourself, were present to put the 
American point of view. 

We have had a request from the American Socialists, 
but the two committees have decided that your Federa- 
tion was the only body to be invited to this conference 
to represent America. I shall esteem it a favor, there- 
fore, if you will give this matter your sympathetic con- 
sideration and let me know as early as possible any 
decision you may reach. 

With all good wishes, 
Yours sincerely, 

Arthur Henderson. 
Mr. Samuel Gompers, 

Washington, D. C. 

This invitation reached the headquarters of the American 
Federation of Labor late February 9. The Executive Coun- 
cil was beginning its regular meeting on the following day. 
It was then too late to send a representative to be in time 
to attend the London conference, February 20. On Feb- 
ruary 11, the Council considered the invitation and au- 
thorized the President of the American Federation of Labor 
to send a cablegram expressing regret that owing to lack 
of time it was impossible to be represented in the Inter- 
Allied Conference. In accord with that action the follow- 
ing cablegram was sent: 

Washington, February 18, ipi8. 
Arthur Henderson, 
London. 
Your January sixteen letter reached me late Saturday, 
February nine, and brought to attention Executive 
Council, American Federation of Labor, in session on 
eleventh. We regret that circumstances make impos- 
sible to be represented in the Inter-Allied Labor Con- 
ference, London, February twentieth. 
Executive Council in declaration unanimously de- 
[361] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

clared, "We can not meet with representatives of those 
who are aligned against us in this world war for free- 
dom, but we hope they will sweep away the barriers 
which they have raised between us." 

All should be advised that any one presuming to 
represent Labor in America in your conference is 
simply self -constituted and unrepresentative. 

We hope shortly to send delegation of representative 
workers American labor movement to England and to 
France. 

Please convey our fraternal greetings to the Inter- 
Allied Labor Conference and assure them that we are 
pledged and will give our man-power and at least half 
we have in wealth power in the struggle to secure for 
the world justice, freedom and democracy. 

Gompers. 

It will be observed that in Mr. Henderson's letter he 
stated that our Federation was to be the only body to be 
invited to the conference to represent America. Informa- 
tion had come to us that a group of persons had decided to 
send one or more representatives to attend the Inter-Allied 
Labor Conference at London February 20th, and it was for 
that reason that reference was made in President Gompers' 
cablegram to the fact that any one presuming to represent 
Labor of America would be simply self-constituted and un- 
representative. 

In addition, there was included in the cablegram sent to 
Mr. Henderson a statement that a representative from the 
A. F. of L. would not participate in any discussion or any 
conference in which representatives of enemy countries took 
part. It was believed that this fact should be emphasized 
at that particular time by reason of the declarations of the 
A. F. of L. upon this point and for the further reason that 
there were some who in our judgment mistakenly or wrong- 
fully urged such participation. When the war is won, the 
question of participation in a labor conference in which the 
representatives of all countries participate, can be decided. 

Upon the day that the cablegram was sent it was given 
out in Washington for publication. Some representative of 
the press in New York cabled the message over to British 
papers. On the day of the opening of the London confer- 

[362] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

ence British papers published a garbled cablegram purport- 
ing to be sent by the President of the A. F. of L., in which 
the following sentence had been injected: "American labor 
believes German influences have inspired the London con- 
ference and until this is disproved will avoid the confer- 
ence." 

When the falsehood came to the attention of the Allied 
Labor Conference in London, the conference directed its 
Publicity Committee to publish the text of the cablegram as 
received from President Gompers, and also sent the follow- 
ing cablegram to him: 

London, Feb. 25, 1918. 
Gompers, 

American Federation of Labor, 
Washington. 
Press in this country circulating statement, your al- 
leged authority, that American labor believes German 
influences inspire the London conference. Nothing ap- 
pears your telegram to us. We feel sure you will resent 
gross falsification your message. Apparently part of 
campaign malicious misrepresentation on part enemies 
of labor. Trust you will dissociate your federation 
from statement which is wholly untrue. 

Albert Thomas, President. 
Arthur E. Henderson, Secy. 

Owing to important official engagements which necessi- 
tated absence from Washington, and to official duties that 
could not be deferred, reply to the telegram could not be 
made immediately, and in any event it would not be sent or 
received during the sessions of the conference, for it had al- 
ready adjourned. However, the following cable reply was 
made: 

Washington, D. C, March 13, 19 18. 
Arthur Henderson, 
London. 
Your letter January sixteen inviting delegation 
American Federation of Labor participate in London 
conference February twenty, reached me February nine. 
Authority to designate delegates of the American labor 
[363] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

movement vested in convention American Federation of 
Labor or in Executive Council during interim. 

Executive Council in session February eleven with 
regret found it impossible to send representatives be- 
cause insufficient time to reach London. 

We cabled this fact and fraternal greetings to Inter- 
Allied Labor Conference and assurance that American 
people are united in struggle for world justice and free- 
dom. 

American Federation of Labor responsible only for 
cable sent you by its representatives and not for cable- 
gram garbled in press. 

American labor glad to meet with representatives 
labor movements of allied countries but refuses to meet 
representatives of the labor movements of enemy 
countries while they are fighting against democracy and 
world freedom. 

In the gigantic task to destroy autocracy there must 
be hearty cooperation among workers and we hope 
nothing will interfere with complete understanding and 
good-will between workers of America and allied 
countries. 

A delegation representing American labor will shortly 
visit England and France to encourage, confer and co- 
operate in furtherance of the cause of labor and world 
democracy. Am sending identical cablegram to Albert 
Thomas, France. 

Samuel Gompers. 

An identical cablegram was sent to Albert Thomas of 
France. 

The statement was cabled from Great Britain that the 
Inter-Allied Labor Conference authorized a commission to 
come to the United States to confer with representatives of 
the American labor movement in order to clear up misunder- 
standings and to secure direct information of the views and 
plans of American labor. According to press reports the 
commission was to consist of representatives of British, 
French, Italian and Belgian labor. However, the only of- 
ficial communication received in regard to this commission 
is the following cablegram from L. Jouhaux, Secretary of 
the Confederation Generate du Travail: 

[3641 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

Paris, March 21st, 1018. 
Gompers, 

Washington, D. C. 
I desire to make on the part of the working class 
delegation coming to America, to express to you satis- 
faction at our meeting soon. 

Jouhaux. 

In view of the existing situation, for the purpose of hold- 
ing conferences with workers of allied countries, of ascer- 
taining conditions both in Great Britain and France; to 
bring home to our movement this information and to con- 
vey the information to our fellow workers of the allied 
countries of what we were doing in the United States, to 
convey the message of good will; to bring about a greater 
degree of cooperation and effective service for the toilers 
and for our common cause in winning the war, we au- 
thorized the creation of a commission of representative 
workers of the United States to visit both England and 
France. More particulars of this will be submitted later on 
in this report. 

When it became known in Great Britain and France that 
an American labor mission was going over, information was 
cabled across that the departure of the Inter-Allied com- 
mission would be deferred at least until conferences were 
had with the American labor representatives. It is sug- 
gested that the entire correspondence on International Labor 
Relations published in the American Federationist be read 
when this subject is considered. 



Peace Terms 

Front Executive Council report to St. Paul Convention, 
June, 1 018: 

Since the beginning of the present European war the 
American Federation of Labor at each convention has 
adopted declarations dealing with the peace which shall 
terminate the present war. It is fitting at the present time 
to gather the various principles that have been declared by 

T365] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

our conventions into one comprehensive statement repre- 
senting the peace demands of American Labor. 

At the Philadelphia (1914) Convention a resolution was 
adopted which proposed a World Labor Congress to be held 
at the same time and place as the Peace Congress that would 
formulate the peace treaty closing the war. 

We reported to the San Francisco (191 5) Convention a 
comprehensive plan for the convocation of such a World 
Labor Congress, which was approved. This plan was trans- 
mitted to the labor movements of all countries. Replies were 
received from many concurring in the suggestion. How- 
ever, Carl Legien, President of the Federation of Trade 
Unions of Germany, wrote that in his judgment such a 
movement would be of doubtful practicability, and the Brit- 
ish labor movement withheld endorsement. 

For these reasons the Baltimore (1916) Convention 
adopted as a supplement to the first proposition, that the 
labor movements of the various countries should prevail 
upon their national governments to include representatives 
of Labor in the national delegation which would participate 
in the World Peace Congress. 

These demands are in accord with the fundamental prin- 
ciples of democracy which is the basic issue involved in the 
war. The labor movement holds that the government should 
be the agency by which the will of the people is expressed, 
rather than the agency for controlling them. 

The war is requiring tremendous sacrifices of all of the 
people. Because of their response in defense of principles 
of freedom, the people have earned the right to wipe out 
all vestiges of the old idea that the government belongs to 
or constitutes a "governing class." In determining issues 
that will vitally affect the lives and welfare of millions of 
wage-earners, justice requires that they should have direct 
representation in the agency authorized to make such de- 
cisions. 

The Buffalo (1917) Convention declared that the follow- 
ing essentially fundamental principles must underlie any 
peace treaty acceptable to them: 

1. A league of the free peoples of the world in a 
common covenant for genuine and practical cooperation 
[S66] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

to secure justice and therefore peace in relations be- 
tween nations. 

2. No political or economic restrictions meant to 
benefit some nations and to cripple or embarrass others. 

3. No indemnities or reprisals based upon vindictive 
purposes or deliberate desire to injure, but to right 
manifest wrongs. 

4. Recognition of the rights of small nations and of 
the principle, "No people must be forced under 
sovereignty under which it does not wish to live." 

5. No territorial changes or adjustment of power 
except in furtherance of the welfare of the peoples af- 
fected and in furtherance of world peace. 

In addition to these basic principles which are based upon 
declarations of our President of these United States, there 
should be incorporated in the treaty that shall constitute the 
guide of nations in the new period and conditions into which 
we enter at the close of the war the following declarations, 
fundamental to the best interests of all nations and of 
vital importance to wage-earners: 

1. No article or commodity shall be shipped or de- 
livered in international commerce in the production of 
which children under the age of 16 have been em- 
ployed or permitted to work. 

2. It shall be declared that the basic workday in in- 
dustry and commerce shall not exceed eight hours. 

3. Involuntary servitude shall not exist except as a 
punishment for crime whereof the party shall have 
been duly convicted. 

4. Establishment of trial by jury. 

Because we believe that an effort in advance of the Peace 
Congress to apply these fundamental principles to concrete 
problems would result only in hindering and possibly im- 
periling the work of the representatives in the Peace Con- 
gress by limiting the scope and the effectiveness of the ne- 
gotiatory powers of those who may represent the American 
Government and labor movement, we deem it unwise at 
this time to formulate concrete declarations in regard to 
problems that will come before the Peace Congress. In ad- 
dition, the progress attending the military events will un- 

[367] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

doubtedly greatly change the problems from time to time. 

We are in accord with that program of world peace stated 
by the President of the United States in his address to 
Congress on January 8, 191 8. 

The growth of political institutions is always attendant 
upon the development of closer and more complicated rela- 
tions between groups of people. Simple, political institu- 
tions existing in simple, social organization have always 
grown into more adequate institutions, necessary to meet 
the internal needs and problems of a strong commercial 
people. A corresponding development had been taking place 
in relations between nations before the outbreak of war. 
The industrial and commercial lives of all nations had been 
closely bound together through world organization of 
markets, finances, systems of communications and exchange, 
and agencies for the stimulation and dissemination of 
information, the inadequacy of then existing international 
agencies for dealing with international affairs, was fully 
demonstrated. 

International anarchy creates the opportunity for aggres- 
sion on the part of strong resourceful nations seeking an 
outlet for unemployed energy and excess of production. 
Where there are no established agencies or methods for 
dealing with such aggressors, militarism manifests itself and 
can be eliminated only when the field of international rela- 
tions is justly organized. This work of organization will 
clearly devolve upon a league of nations. Although its work 
will be fraught with far-reaching consequences such a 
league can be trusted to institute necessary agencies and 
methods if it is democratic and humane in character and 
method. We hold that diplomatic relations between na- 
tions must be democratic. In a word, where the human side 
of life is fully recognized and represented. 

Diplomatic representatives of nations ought to be re- 
sponsible to a representative agency in their government 
and should be received either by the parliament of the 
country to which they are accredited or by a representa- 
tive of the people directly responsible to them. 

Under the opportunities created by a league of nations 
adequate agencies could be established for dealing with all 
justiciable questions. An administrative body composed 
of representatives of the principal groups constituting na- 

[368] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

tional interests should be established to deal with practical 
problems in a constructive way and thus avert situations 
that might otherwise result in injustice and war. We have 
already a more or less indefinite mass of customs known as 
international law. The present law does not furnish ade- 
quate standards to direct international relations. The law 
could be made more practical and more effective by con- 
ferences of representatives of the various peoples to revise, 
modify, and extend existing regulations. 

As the result of experience, particularly as events have 
been disclosed since the beginning of the war, there has 
been demonstrated a total lack of effective organization of 
the forces among the peoples of all the countries to make 
for the maintenance of international peace and at the same 
time secure international justice. As an outgrowth of the 
war, new understandings and conceptions have developed to 
the causes of war and particularly of the present war; new 
conceptions of right and of justice and an increased deter- 
mination to secure and thereafter maintain the peace of 
the world founded upon a higher morale of the peoples of 
the world. There can be no question as to the final outcome 
of this world struggle. Autocracy, militarism, and its most 
dangerous supporting weapon, irresponsible diplomacy, must 
perish. Democracy, justice, freedom and absolute confidence 
between governments and peoples must be established and 
triumph. There is no doubt but out of the present war 
the morals and the conduct of the governments of the world 
must be upon a higher moral plane, and that this fact will 
make toward the establishment and maintenance of inter- 
national relations which shall safeguard the peoples of the 
world in the enjoyment of a much desired permanent peace. 



From the report of the Committee on International Labor 
Relations to the American Federation of Labor convention 
in St. Paul, Minn., June, 1918. 

Your Committee on International Labor Relations has 
approached all subjects referred to it from the viewpoint 
of "Win the War for Democracy and Justice." We hold, 
there can be no true democracy, justice and freedom in the 

[369] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

economic, social or political field of endeavor under an 
autocratic form of government, asserting its authority and 
holding its power by militarism. 

Under the caption, International Labor Relations, in the 
Executive Council's Report, you will find interesting, com- 
prehensive information concerning several important mat- 
ters, which if they had not been properly handled would 
have had, in our judgment, a far-reaching, disastrous result 
upon the present and future welfare of our country's cause, 
our cause, and the sacred cause of our Allies in this crisis. 
Chief among these propositions are: 

1. Proposals to hold an international labor conference in 
which representatives from enemy countries should partic- 
ipate, and 

2. Discussion of "peace terms." 

3. Reconstruction. 

4. The invitation made by Arthur Henderson, represent- 
ing the Parliamentary Committee of the Trade Union Con- 
gress and the National Executive of the British Labor 
Party, to attend an Inter-Allied Labor Conference to com- 
mence in London on February 20, 1918. 

The report sets forth that this invitation was received 
at the headquarters of the American Federation of Labor 
late on February 9, 191 8, and at a time which made it 
impossible for the American Federation of Labor to be 
represented at the Inter-Allied Conference. In the reply of 
President Gompers, authorized and forwarded by direction 
of the Executive Council, A. F. of L., we particularly 
note this statement: 

"We cannot meet with representatives of those who are 
aligned against us in this world war for freedom, but 
we hope they will sweep away the barriers which they 
have raised between us." 

We declare the position of the Executive Council in refus- 
ing to sit in conference at this time with delegates from 
countries with which we are at war is logically, morally and 
absolutely correct. We dare say, it is our judgment that 
no representatives to a conference of this nature could 
emerge from either of the Central Powers without the 
approval and consent of the autocratic rulers of these 
countries; hence, under such circumstances there could be 
no true expression of the hopes and the aspirations, and 

[370] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

the true attitude of the toiling masses in those autocratically 
ridden, misgoverned, militaristic governments. 



Peace Terms 

Upon that portion of the Executive Council's report under 
the caption above the committee reported as follows: 

Under this caption, the Council sets forth in detail or- 
ganized labor's attitude as first expressed at the Philadel- 
phia, 1914, Convention, down to and including the action 
taken at the Buffalo, 1917, Convention. 

At the Philadelphia Convention, the American Federation 
of Labor proposed that a Peace Congress, composed of 
representatives of labor of all countries, should meet and 
give expression to Labor's views of peace treaties, at the 
time peace terms between nations shall be considered at the 
close of the war. 

At the San Francisco, 1915, Convention, a comprehensive 
plan for the convocation of such a World Labor Congress 
was proposed and approved. This plan was forwarded 
through proper channels to the labor movements of all coun- 
tries. Mr. Carl Legien, President of the Federation of 
Trade Unions of Germany, wrote stating that in his judg- 
ment such a plan and movement was of doubtful practicabil- 
ity, and the British labor movement withheld endorsement; 

At the Baltimore, 1916, Convention, a supplementary plan 
to the first proposition was proposed and adopted; that is, 
that the labor movements of the various countries should 
prevail upon the national governments to include represen- 
tatives of labor in the National Delegation, which would 
participate in the World Peace Congress, and at the same 
time reaffirmed the action taken at the foregoing stated 
conventions ; 

At the Buffalo, 1917, Convention, previous actions were 
reaffirmed and reindorsed and, in addition, more clear-cut and 
fundamental principles were declared to be in our judgment 
the basic construction of proper peace terms. These are 
set forth in the Council's report, and it is unnecessary to 
repeat them here, except to say that paramount among these 
recommendations are: 

A league of the free peoples of the world in a common 
[371] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

convenant for genuine and practical cooperation to secure 
justice and therefore peace in relations between nations. 

No political or economic restrictions meant to benefit some 
nations and to cripple and embarrass others. 

Recognition of the rights of small nations and of the 
principle, "No people must be forced under sovereignty 
under which it does not wish to live"; 
and, 

"Involuntary servitude shall not exist except as a punish- 
ment for crime, where the party shall have been duly 
convicted," 
and, last but not least, 

"Establishment of trial by jury." 

Reaffirming and re-asserting former declarations of prin- 
ciples concerning terms of peace, we hold and again re- 
iterate a former declaration, that the terms of peace and 
the calling of peace conferences primarily rests with our 
government, and that whatever we may say in this connec- 
tion is purely an expression of our thoughts and our hopes, 
and of an advisory character. We cannot refrain from 
asserting that it is our judgment and belief no just nor last- 
ing peace can be obtained by negotiations until victory is 
achieved. The universe is horrified over the precipitation 
of a war that has set the whole world on fire, and there 
is no question in our minds as to who started the war, 
and the then hidden, but now public, purposes of the Ger- 
man imperialistic and militaristic government. There can 
be no real nor permanent peace, such as will safeguard and 
protect freedom and justice, that is not predicated upon 
democracy and the rights of the people to self-government. 
We owe it to ourselves, to our country, and to our Allies, and 
to the peoples of all civilized countries, to insist upon a 
peace that shall be grounded upon the triumph of our cause, 
democracy and justice. 

Events in Russia have shown the utter futility of at- 
tempting to negotiate peace treaties with the Central Powers 
as they are now constituted. 

Your committee agrees with the Council substantially 
that "We deem it unwise at this time to formulate concrete 
declarations in regard to problems that will come before the 
Peace Congress," and that 

"We are in accord with the program of World Peace 
[372] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

stated by the President of the United States in his address 
to Congress on January 8, 1918, and moreover, 

"That autocracy and militarism and its most dangerous 
weapon, irresponsible diplomacy, must perish." 

Adhering strictly to these principles, we are of the opinion 
that no permanent peace can be made nor should be made 
until democracy supplants autocracy, and that a league of 
nations is established for the purpose of maintaining a just 
peace for and the protection of small nations. 



[373] 



PROPOSALS OF AMERICAN FEDERATION OF 
LABOR DELEGATES TO INTER-ALLIED LABOR 
CONFERENCE 

London, September 17, 18, 10, 20, 1018. 

We recognize in this World War the conflict between 
autocratic and democratic institutions; the contest between 
the principles of self -development through free institutions 
and that of arbitrary control of government by groups or 
individuals for selfish ends. 

It is therefore essential that the peoples and the govern- 
ments of all countries should have a full and definite knowl- 
edge of the spirit and determination of this Inter-allied 
Conference, representative of the workers of our respective 
countries, with reference to the prosecution of the War. 

We declare it to be our unqualified determination to do all 
that lies within our power to assist our allied countries in 
the marshaling of all of their resources to the end that the 
armed forces of the Central Powers may be driven from the 
soil of the nations which they have invaded and now 
occupy; and, furthermore, that these armed forces shall be 
opposed so long as they carry out the orders or respond to 
the control of the militaristic autocratic governments of the 
Central Powers which now threaten the existence of all 
self-governing people. 

This Conference endorses the fourteen points laid down 
by President Wilson as conditions upon which peace between 
the belligerent nations may be established and maintained, 
as follows: — 

1. Open covenants of peace openly arrived at, after which 
there shall be no private international understandings of 
any kind, but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and 
in the public view. 

2. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas outside 
territorial waters alike in peace and in war, except as the 
seas may be closed in whole or in part by international 
action for the enforcement of international covenants. 

3. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic bar- 

[374] 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

riers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions 
among all the nations consenting to peace and associating 
itself for its maintenance. 

4. Adequate guarantees, given and taken, that national 
armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent 
with domestic safety. 

5. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjust- 
ment of all Colonial claims, based upon a strict observance 
of the principle that in determining all such questions of 
sovereignty the interests of the populations concerned must 
have equal weight with the equitable claims of the Govern- 
ment whose title is to be determined. 

6. The evacuation of all Russian territory, and such a 
settlement of all questions affecting Russia as will secure 
the best and freest cooperation of the other nations of the 
world in obtaining for her an unhampered and unembar- 
rassed opportunity for the independent determination of her 
own political development and national policy, and assure 
her of a sincere welcome into the society of free nations 
under institutions of her own choosing; and more than a 
welcome assistance also of every kind that she may need 
and may herself desire. 

The treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations in 
the months to come will be the acid test of their good- 
will, of their comprehension of her needs, as distinguished 
from their own interests, and of their intelligent and un- 
selfish sympathy. 

7. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacu- 
ated and restored without any attempt to limit the sover- 
eignty which she enjoys in common with all other free 
nations. No other single act will serve, as this will serve, 
to restore confidence among the nations in the laws which 
they have themselves set and determined for the government 
of their relations with one another. Without this healing 
act the whole structure and validity of international law is 
for ever impaired. 

8. All French territory should be freed and the invaded 
portions restored, and the wrong done to France by Prussia 
in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has un- 
settled the peace of the world for nearly 50 years, should 
be righted in order that peace may once more be made secure 
in the interest of all. 

9. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be 
effected along clearly recognizable lines of nationality. 

10. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among 
the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should 

[375] 



AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR 

be accorded the first opportunity of autonomous develop- 
ment. 

ii. Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacu- 
ated, the occupied territories restored, Serbia accorded 
free and secure access to the sea, and the relations of the 
several Balkan States to one another determined by friendly 
counsel along historically established lines of allegiance and 
nationality, and international guarantees of the political and 
economic independence and territorial integrity of the sev- 
eral Balkan States should be entered into. 

12. The Turkish portions of the present Ottoman Empire 
should be assured a secure sovereignty, but the other nation- 
alities which are now under Turkish rule should be as- 
sured an undoubted security of life and an absolutely 
unmolested opportunity of autonomous development, and the 
Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a free pas- 
sage to the ships and commerce of all nations under inter- 
national guarantees. 

13. An independent Polish state should be erected, which 
should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish 
populations, which should be assured a free and secure 
access to the sea, and whose political and economic inde- 
pendence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by 
international covenant. 

14. A general association of nations must be formed 
under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual 
guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity 
to great and small states alike. 

The world is requiring tremendous sacrifices of all the 
peoples. Because of their response in defense of principles 
of freedom the peoples have earned the right to wipe out all 
vestiges of the old idea that the government belongs to or 
constitutes a "governing class." In determining issues that 
will vitally affect the lives and welfare of millions of wage 
earners, justice requires that they should have direct repre- 
sentation in the agencies authorized to make such decisions. 
We therefore declare that — 

In the official delegation from each of the belligerent 
countries which will formulate the Peace Treaty, the Work- 
ers should have direct official representation: 

We declare in favor of a World Labor Congress to be 
held at the same time and place as the Peace Conference 
that will formulate the Peace Treaty closing the War. 

We declare that the following essentially fundamental 
principles must underlie the Peace Treaty: 

[376] 



J Ah fc 7 1943 



LABOR'S OFFICIAL WAR RECORD 

A league of the free peoples of the world in a common 
covenant for genuine and practical cooperation to secure 
justice and therefore peace in relations between nations. 

No political or economic restrictions meant to benefit some 
nations and to cripple or embarrass others. 

No reprisals based upon purely vindictive purposes, or 
deliberate desire to injure, but to right manifest wrongs. 

Recognition of the rights of small nations and of the prin- 
ciple, "No people must be forced under sovereignty under 
which it does not wish to live." 

No territorial changes or adjustment of power except in 
furtherance of the welfare of the peoples affected and in 
furtherance of world peace. 

In addition to these basic principles there should be incor- 
porated in the Treaty which shall constitute the guide of 
nations in the new period and conditions into which we enter 
at the close of the War, the following declarations funda- 
mental to the best interests of all nations and of vital im- 
portance to wage-earners : 

That in law and in practice the principle shall be recog- 
nized that the labor of a human being is not a commodity 
or article of commerce. 

Involuntary servitude shall not exist except as a punish- 
ment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly 
convicted. 

The right of free association, free assemblage, free speech 
and free press shall not be abridged. 

That the seamen of the merchant marine shall be guaran- 
teed the right of leaving their vessels when the same are 
in safe harbor. 

No article or commodity shall be shipped or delivered in 
international commerce in the production of which children 
under the age of sixteen years have been employed or per- 
mitted to work. 

It shall be declared that the basic workday in industry and 
commerce shall not exceed eight hours per day. 

Trial by jury should be established. 

SAMUEL GOMPERS 
JOHN P. FREY 

CHARLES L. BAINE \ Delegates 
WILLIAM A. BOWEN 
EDGAR WALLACE 
[377] 



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